18 June 2025

Fieldays Innovation Award's People's Choice winner announced

The 2025 Fieldays Innovation Awards People’s Choice winner has been named, with Mīti by Alps2Ocean Foods taking out the top spot. Voting took place during Fieldays from 11–14 June at Mystery Creek, where visitors cast their votes by scanning their Fieldays Smart Band at the dedicated kiosk in the Fieldays Innovation Hub. The award comes with a $2,000 cash prize for the winning innovator, and one lucky voter chosen at random scores a $500 Prezzy card.

The People’s Choice Award is designed to give Fieldays visitors a chance to connect with New Zealand’s up-and-coming innovations and innovators, and to support their favourites. Votes nearly doubled from last year, marking strong public engagement in the second year of this interactive feature.

“Every one of our Awards participants received at least one vote, with Mīti securing 15% of the votes,” said Steve Chappell, Programme Manager, New Zealand National Fieldays Society. “Voting was live from Wednesday morning to the final minutes of Saturday, and it was exciting to see the numbers come through.”

Oamaru’s Alps2Ocean Foods Tapui Ltd, a Māori-owned agri-business, not only won the People’s Choice Award, but also took out the Early-Stage Award, supported by Map of Ag, with its product Mīti, which transforms surplus dairy calves into a world-first, shelf-stable, functional protein snack. Mīti smokey kānuka and honey beef bites are made in New Zealand from NZ grass-fed young beef which is a by-product of the dairy industry.

“It has been an amazing week,” said Daniel Carson of Oamaru, founder of Alps2Ocean Foods. “It’s so great to get this validation from the public voters, alongside the judges' support last week. We've obviously got the taste right in our Mīti Beef Bites, and customers also appreciate that our value chain is designed to highlight New Zealand’s best pastoral farming practices and highest animal welfare standards."

The lucky voter prize of a $500 Prezzy card went to Hamilton’s Mark Eagles, who voted for KiwiPrune by St Paul’s Collegiate School, winner of the Young Innovator Award. “I thought you were ringing to say I’d won the JAC T9 ute,” joked Eagles. “But this is great too – it’s made my day. I’ve never won a competition in all my 60 years.”

All Fieldays Innovation Awards exhibitors are eligible for the People’s Choice Award, whether they exhibited in the Hub or elsewhere at the event. Visitors could follow the Innovation Trail via the Fieldays App to explore all the participants.

Winners of the other Fieldays Innovation Awards categories including the Prototype Award supported by Sprout Agritech and Blender Design, Early-Stage Award supported by Map of Ag, Growth & Scale Award supported by NZME and KingSt, and the Fieldays Young Innovator Award were announced on Thursday last week. The event was livestreamed for the public and is now available to watch on-demand at fieldays.co.nz/innovation.

The Fieldays Innovation Hub and Awards are proudly sponsored by Map of Ag, Sprout, NZME, Gait International, KingSt, and Blender.