{"id":639019,"date":"2026-10-23T11:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639019\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T11:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T11:28:12","slug":"growing-quinoa-very-real-new-option-for-struggling-arable-farmers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639019\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing quinoa \u2018very real, new option\u2019 for struggling arable farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Federated Farmers\u2019 most recent confidence survey in September found one in four arable farmers were making a loss.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this reason Dan Cottrell of Kiwi Quinoa is encouraging arable farmers to think about growing the dried seed crop to meet demand from overseas.<\/p>\n

The sheep and beef farmer has been growing quinoa for over a decade near Taihape \u2013 expanding to 17 contract growers across the North and South Island after they ran out of room on his farm.<\/p>\n

Kiwi Quinoa is the licensee partner growing Dutch quinoa, a saponin-free variant developed in the Netherlands by Wageningen University, for European growing companies.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also secured an export contract with a partner in Canada and is looking for more growers to come on board.<\/p>\n

Cottrell said it was helping overseas growers whose production and supply chains were under pressure.<\/p>\n

\" Cottrell said there was also increased demand here, and he wanted to see more Kiwis eating quinoa too.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssentially we\u2019re growing in their off season to supplement their production due to a variety of reasons – primarily increased demand for them and certainly climatic pressure and with the likes of what\u2019s happening in Europe because they\u2019ve had some really tough seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just one season, it\u2019s two, three in a row, and 18 months of no rain and then flooding in the south of Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cottrell said there was also increased demand here and he wanted to see more Kiwis eating quinoa too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very real new option,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got long-term contracts and the demand is increasing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd look, I\u2019m not going to sugarcoat it: it has been challenging within the quinoa industry for the last few years, but I think the demand is certainly taking off.\u201d<\/p>\n

For growers, he said New Zealand produces some of the highest yields in the world. It was a good opportunity for those impacted by the closures as it\u2019s a \u201cshort rotation and low input\u201d crop with a \u201chealthy gross margin\u201d.<\/p>\n

\" Kiwi Quinoa is the licensee partner growing Dutch quinoa, a saponin-free variant developed in the Netherlands by Wageningen University, for European growing companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur average yield is three and a half tonne clean and … we have reached five tonne this last season.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It\u2019s] low input, like very similar, or I would say lower fertiliser inputs than, for example, cereals, and there\u2019s no sprays on the crop – so no sort of fungicides or herbicides or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\" Quinoa being harvested.<\/p>\n

Cottrell said crops could be planted from now until late December with an April harvest; some growers had reported success with double cropping, planting after harvesting processed peas.<\/p>\n

\" A field of quinoa.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s ideally looking for Canterbury growers, as they have a processing facility here, but was open to anyone and they also have a North Island processing facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crop … it\u2019s got an exciting future, and we\u2019ve got growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is it grows really well in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged growers to get in touch directly with any questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federated Farmers\u2019 most recent confidence survey in September found one in four arable farmers were making a loss.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[147158,138,12967,2082,25689,226,117,111,139,69,11664,49941,6115,25690,666,303],"class_list":["post-639019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-arable","tag-business","tag-farmers","tag-for","tag-gianina","tag-growing","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-option","tag-quinoa","tag-real","tag-schwanecke","tag-struggling","tag-very"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639019","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=639019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}