Why Food & Fibre (Primary Sector) Matters

The food and fibre sector is at the heart of Wairarapa’s economy and identity. In 2025, the sector contributed approximately $598 million in regional GDP and employed 4,240 people across farming, viticulture, processing, transport, and supply chain services. As one of Wairarapa's foundations, the sector reflects both our heritage and our future, combining generations of expertise with emerging opportunities in innovation, land optimisation, technology adoption, and value-added production. The strength of the sector has a direct influence on the resilience and prosperity of the wider regional economy.

Like many rural regions, Wairarapa's food and fibre sector faces increasing pressure from market volatility, rising operational costs, workforce shortages, succession challenges, and evolving environmental and regulatory expectations. At the same time, there are significant opportunities in optimising how we use our land, value-added production, technology adoption, diversifying income streams, and niche market development.

The WEDS Work Programme plays a strategic enabling role by helping identify gaps, connect partners, and support initiatives that strengthen the long-term resilience and competitiveness of the sector.

Current Initiatives in Delivery

From early 2025, the WEDS Work Programme started supporting a number of key initiatives to strengthen food and fibre in Wairarapa:

Food & Fibre Capability Boost Series

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Building on a successful Discovery phase the pilot involves businesses from across the food and fibre value chain, the Programme supports businesses to identify operational strengths, capability gaps, and practical opportunities for improvement.

The initiative is designed to ensure businesses have strong foundations in place before pursuing growth, diversification, investment, or succession opportunities. Insights from the programme have been shared with sector support services to help shape future capability development support tailored to the needs of Wairarapa businesses.

Future Land Use Options

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Building on previous research and regional engagement, WEDS has identified optimisation opportunities showing early signs of commercial viability, including kiwifruit and strong wool as the first workstreams underway.

Work is focused on progressing these opportunities through pathway development, partnerships, and enabling activities that support landowners, growers, and rural innovators to explore commercially viable approaches that respond to changing market, consumer, and environmental expectations.

Shared Narrative

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Delivered in partnership with Destination Wairarapa, the Shared Narrative project is developing a community-backed regional story and messaging framework that authentically articulates what makes Wairarapa unique.
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The initiative will support the promotion of Wairarapa's food and fibre products, strengthen regional identity, and help attract talent, investment, visitors, and new opportunities to the region.

Workforce Capability – On the Front Foot

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In partnership with industry organisations, WEDS is supporting a cross-primary sector workforce initiative focused on leadership, communication, and team performance.

The programme responds to industry feedback that identifies people leadership, workplace culture, staff engagement, and retention as increasingly important capability needs alongside technical expertise. The initiative aims to strengthen workplace performance and support more resilient rural businesses.

Photo by Jet Productions

Photo by Abc

Completed and Pilot Initiatives

The WEDS has already supported several successful initiatives that laid the foundation for ongoing work:

Good2Great Leadership Programme in 2021-22 and 2023

Delivered in partnership with Business Wairarapa and the Ministry for Primary Industries, the programme supported businesses to strengthen leadership capability, workplace culture, and team performance. The programme demonstrated strong demand for practical capability development tailored to food and fibre businesses.

Wairarapa Food & Fibre Innovation Forum in 2023

The region's first innovation forum brought together producers, researchers, funding agencies, and sector support organisations to strengthen connections across the innovation ecosystem and improve awareness of support pathways relating to innovation, commercialisation, exports, and technology adoption.

Agritourism Pilot Programme in 2023

WEDS supported an agritourism workshop series that helped rural businesses explore opportunities to diversify income streams through visitor experiences and destination-based offerings.

Strategic Planning for Sector Development in 2024

A regional food and fibre strategic planning project commissioned through the Wellington Regional Economic Development Plan helped identify long-term sector priorities, capability gaps, and opportunities for coordinated investment and delivery. This work informed the next phase of sector development activity and strengthened alignment with wider Wellington regional priorities.

Seed & Grain Processing and Storage Facility (2025-26)

WEDS supported the project to lodge a full and complete submission to Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit for the development of a proposed Lower North Island seed and grain cleaning, processing, and storage facility at Waingawa Industrial Estate. The initiative seeks to strengthen supply chain resilience, support value-added production, and improve local access to processing and storage infrastructure.

Outcomes for Wairarapa

Short-Term Outcomes

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Improved understanding of sector needs: Stronger engagement across the food and fibre sector provides clearer insight into regional challenges, capability gaps, and emerging opportunities, helping focus activity where it can deliver the greatest value.
Better alignment across the system: Relationships between industry, councils, education providers, central government, and support agencies are improving coordination and enabling a more connected approach to sector development.
Capability priorities identified: Governance, leadership, workforce development, succession planning, strategy, and investment readiness have been identified as critical enablers of long-term sector resilience and growth.
Foundation initiatives established: Early-stage programmes and pilot projects are creating strong foundations for a more structured and sector-informed programme of capability and innovation support.

Long-Term Outcomes

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Greater sector resilience and sustainability: Improved leadership capability, stronger business fundamentals, and increased confidence in strategic planning help businesses adapt to future environmental, economic, and workforce challenges.
Increased productivity and innovation: A stronger innovation ecosystem and improved investment readiness support businesses to diversify sustainably, adopt new technologies, improve productivity, and pursue higher-value opportunities.
Stronger economic contribution: A resilient and future-focused food and fibre sector continues to support regional prosperity through employment, value-added production, export growth, and local investment.
Culture of continuous improvement: A more connected and capability-focused sector supports ongoing learning, collaboration, and long-term business development.
Commercial relevance of diversification pathways: Future Options work improves understanding of commercially viable diversification opportunities under changing market and environmental conditions, supporting evidence-based decision-making by landowners and investors.