NZ Kiwifruit Innovation Award

The New Zealand kiwifruit innovation award was set up in 2015 by former Chairman of Kiwifruit New Zealand Sir Brian Elwood, to recognise outstanding individual achievement in the industry.

Who can be nominated?

The award is open to anyone directly or indirectly connected to our industry, such as growers, orchard management, post-harvest, research and Zespri.

Nominees must be:
• an individual, not a team
• their contribution will involve an initiative undertaken within the last two years that solves a problem or creates added value for the industry.

How to nominate

Nominations are closed.

Recipients

The award was first presented in 2017 to Kanako Inomata, head of marketing for Zespri in Japan, selected for outstanding innovation in Japan marketing.

The 2019 winner was Dr Philip Elmer for his contribution to the fight against diseases and the industry’s efforts to become more sustainable. Dr Elmer, a senior scientist at Crown Research Institute Plant & Food Research, was awarded the award for leading the team which developed the organic-certified biological control agent Aureo Gold which was used in the fight against Psa.