Rotorua biofactory opens a potential NZ$50 billion economic gain

Rotorua biofactory opens a potential NZ$50 billion economic gain

Friday 3 Oct 2025

A NZ$63 million research factory processing biowaste into chemicals, glues and bioplastics will turbocharge the biotechnology sector when it opens in Rotorua next year. The biofactory will be a commercial-scale facility that will transform low-value wood, food waste and animal products into high-value ingredients, which its promoters say will change industries and create new ones.

New Zealand produces large amounts of low value biomass from its agri-sector, and large companies are keen to develop new uses for those materials to replace fossil-fuel based products that are no longer in demand.

It is estimated that developing new products this way could add NZ$50 billion to the country’s current NZ$100b worth of exports, the factory’s backers say. The global bioeconomy is expected to grow from US$4 trillion (NZ$6.8t) today, to US$50t by 2050.

The factory is to be built on the Scion Campus in Rotorua. Scion, a Crown Research Institute, is charged with two main research aims - identifying opportunities in the wood fibre, pulp, biopolymer, packaging and biochemical industries and from their biomass side stream, and increasing New Zealand’s energy security through the use of forest and waste biomass for bioenergy.

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Source & image credit: The Post

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