Hawke's Bay fruit bowl has proved to be the perfect location for the fruit-based snacks business, Kiwigarden. Kiwigarden founders, Joanne Edwards and Taine Randell, produce a range of fruit-based snacks using freeze drying technology.
Kiwigarden products have been finalists in the 2015 and 2016 NZ Food Awards, and last week its crunchy coconut raspberry yoghurt drops, which they describe as "a smoothie with some serious crunch," won the novel ingredient award.
"It's still early days but the recognition by our industry peers gives us great confidence that we are on the right track," Edwards said.
A former lawyer, she developed the range when she started making her own snacks for the couple's three children.
"As a mum I understand the constant challenge to find readily available snacks that contain natural ingredients with no added preservatives, artificial colours and flavours."
The pair soon identified a gap in the market for healthy, convenience snacks using natural ingredients and started the business three years ago.
"I started trialling various clean foods using farmers' market yoghurt and local fruit and vegetables to create the first range of Kiwigarden snacks."
Her family, which owns kitchen HQ, had been among the pioneers in freeze drying in New Zealand, developing the technology over 30 years.
This gave the business access to the largest high-tech freeze drying facility in the Southern Hemisphere, she said.
"I had access to a test freeze dryer and started making my own batches of snacks. My kids loved it, and so did their friends and their parents. We were overwhelmed by the response. Before we knew it, we were launching our first range."
"Being based in Hawke's Bay, we have fresh fruit, vegetable, yoghurt and honey literally right on our doorstep. It doesn't get any better than that."
Kiwigarden snacks are sold in more than 150 stores throughout the country and online. They are distributed to Australia, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
