Move over ham, here comes lamb
It’s official, lamb will take centre stage on Kiwi Christmas tables this year.
New Zealand teenagers will be transforming typical, run-of the-mill burgers into healthy, gourmet masterpieces to impress culinary judges in the annual secondary school burger competition.
Encouraging teenagers to develop creative cooking skills is one of the aims of the competition, run by Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
The competition requires students to take a base product of beef or lamb and turn it into an appetising burger, taking into account nutritional value, appearance and flavour harmonies.
"The competition is now in its ninth year and the thought, skill and preparation shown by the young competitors every year is always impressive", says Lisa Moloney, Beef + Lamb New Zealand.
Eight regional competitions will be held around the country over the next three weeks, with more than 100 students entering nationwide.
Competitors are given one hour to cook their gourmet burger from scratch. Chef tutors from local Polytechs judge the students on their preparation and working methods during the hour then score the final product on degree of cooking, dish composition and flavour.
The regional winners in both the junior and senior section will go on to compete in the national final in Auckland in September, with prizes of $750 for the senior winner and $500 for the junior, with $1,000 going to each winning school.
Fonterra shareholders say they will be keeping an eye on their co-operative's performance after the sale of its consumer businesses.
T&G Global says its 2025 New Zealand apple season has delivered higher returns for growers, reflecting strong global consumer demand and pricing across its Envy and Jazz apple brands.
New Zealand's primary sector is set to reach a record $62 billion in food and fibre exports next year.
A new levying body, currently with the working title of NZWool, has been proposed to secure the future of New Zealand's strong wool sector.
The most talked about, economically transformational pieces of legislation in a generation have finally begun their journey into the statute books.
Effective from 1 January 2026, there will be three new grower directors on the board of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR).

OPINION: Federated Farmers has launched a new campaign, swapping ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ for ‘The Twelve Pests of Christmas’ to…
OPINION: It used to be that the National Fieldays attracted brickbats for being officious clipboard carriers, while the regional, farmer-run field…