RNZ spoke to Lightfoot a year ago<\/a> and since then, he’s travelled around Europe, met royalty and is looking to enter the US market.<\/p>\nAnd his diary for this year is also looking full to the brim, with shows and meetings.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a stall at Jeremy Clarkson’s farm, the Diddly Squat Farm. A couple of weeks ago I had a phone call from the CEO of McHale Balers, the big green one, and he’s invited us over to Ireland.”<\/p>\n
![\"Kiwi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4MAYICO_A_close_up_of_the_edible_and_biodegradable_netting_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nA closer look at the edible bale netting.
\nPhoto: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes\n<\/p>\n
Also on his itinerary is the Royal Norfolk Show in the UK, where he’s hoping to speak to the royal family about using his product on their farms.<\/p>\n
Lightfoot added that Prince William showed interest in his baleage at a festival last year.<\/p>\n
“I think I might be able to catch up with King Charles while I’m there as well.”<\/p>\n
It’s not been completely smooth sailing entering the US market though.<\/p>\n
The jute-based product is manufactured in India, which were facing heavy tariffs from the Trump administration last year.<\/p>\n
However, due to recent changes to tariffs, Lightfoot is feeling optimistic that they he can enter the US market this year.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grant, his favourite stag and a roll of Kiwi Econet. Photo: Cosmo Kentish-Barnes A Southland farmer who invented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[48,138,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-355151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-audio","tag-business","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kiwi](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4MAYID9_Grant_poses_with_a_rool_of_Kwi_Econet_and_his_favourite_stag_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n