Wednesday, 14 May 2025 15:55

Innovators and advocates among 2025 PINZ Awards finalists

Written by Staff Reporters

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Chris Allen (pictured) has been nominated posthumously for the Rural Hero Award.

Among this year’s Primary Industry NZ (PINZ) Awards finalists are rural New Zealanders who advocate for pragmatic regulation and support stressed out farmers.

The seventh annual PINZ Awards are part of the two-day PINZ Summit taking place at Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre on 24 and 25 June.

Federated Farmers chief executive Terry Copeland says that with tariffs sparking disruption and uncertainty in export markets, New Zealand needs the primary sector to be innovative and enterprising.

“The PINZ Awards celebrate our primary industry movers and shakers – the science and food production teams delivering a market edge for our exported goods, the leaders who go the extra mile,” Copeland says.

“Their efforts inspire others and lift the employment prospects and standards of living for fellow Kiwis,” he adds.

The 2025 finalists for the Rural Hero Award are Chris Allen, Neil Bateup, and Ian Jury.

Allen died in an accident on his Ashburton farm last December having given 14 years’ service as an elected Federated Farmers leader, including eight years on the national board.

A champion of rural causes, he steered a pragmatic and balanced approach on environment and water issues, earning respect from both farmers and those with opposing views.

Bateup helped set up the Waikato Hauraki Coromandel Rural Support Trust in 2004 and in 2017 became the founding chair of the NZ Rural Support Trust.

85-year-old Jury has spent 20 years raising money for the Taranaki rescue helicopter by collecting batteries for recycling.

Meanwhile, four young women have been selected as finalists for the Emerging Leader Award.

A contract milker overseeing the expansion of her employing farm from 270 to 850 cows, Bridie Virbickas put her hand up to be Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty sharefarmer chair to ensure a voice for the district’s young farmers is at the decision-making table.

The role has seen her help out in a number of cases where the relationship between a sharefarmer and farm owner has broken down.

Imogen Brankin, Silver Fern Farms’ on-farm sustainability advisor, was the winner of the 2022 Polson Higgs and Young Farmers Innovation Competition, speaking on the topic "Can Farming Deliver a Sustainable Future for New Zealand", and was part of a team of five who competed in the 2023 IFAMA Global Case Study Competition.

Onions NZ general manager Kazi Talaska has served on the Food and Fibre Youth Council, latterly as chair, and champions the Vegetable Industry Centre of Excellence to support the vegetable industry research pipeline.

Talaska worked with industry partners and growers to obtain $2 million in funding to set up a first-of-its-kind vegetable research farm, in Pukekohe.

The fourth Emerging Leader Award finalist is agricultural sustainability coach Lucy Brown. Through her work with the MPI-funded Integrated Farm Planning project, and in other roles, she’s found ways to show farmers sustainability is not just a theoretical concept but something that is practical and achievable.

Full List of 2025 Primary Industries NZ Award finalists

Emerging Leader Award

Bridie Virbickas, Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty Sharemilker Chair

Imogen Brankin, On-Farm Sustainability Advisor, Silver Fern Farms

Kazi Talaska, General Manager, Onions NZ

Lucy Brown, The Whole Story

Champion Award

David Wheeler, senior scientist, AgResearch

James (Jim) Ward, manager, Pamu Molesworth Station

Dr Robyn Dynes, principal scientist and farmer engagement specialist, AgResearch

Team and Collaboration Award

nProve for Beef – online genetics tool, Beef + Lamb New Zealand