And the winner of the Locus Research Innovation Award is…

The Locus team has just wrapped up another year at the Fieldays, and what an epic few days! Primary industry innovation is the heart of New Zealand’s economy, and it was great to see some new and exciting innovations get their time in the limelight at the Fieldays Innovation Centre.

Caroline and I (Simon) had the enviable job of getting around this year’s entrants to judge who would receive the Locus Research Innovation Award. Our first ever award went to the lads behind the now very successful UBCO 2×2 Utility Bike, so we were excited to see what had been going on in farm sheds around the country over the last year.

Each year we see the quality of research, technical innovation and look and feel of the entries go up a notch, and this year was no exception, with some seriously slick products hitting the Innovations Centre!

This year’s Locus Research Innovation award went to Hydratorq for Biofume, a novel ozone generation and treatment system. Ozone is known as a powerful oxidant, used as a chemical-free sanitiser and disinfectant, but it was Biofumes’ innovative and patented generation system in such a small and mobile form factor that impressed us. The disruptive delivery system opens up a huge rage of potential markets for ozone treatment, from home water treatment, to surface sterilisation and bacteria control in orchards. Biofume already has 20 mobile ozone units strapped to kiwifruit sprayers in orchards across the Bay of Plenty, killing bacterial and fungal invaders such as PSA.

Our award provides Biofume with 4 x 1-day sessions with 4 of the Locus team to tackle the next steps to making Biofume a commercial success. Whether its brand, design, manufacturing, IP, commercial or anything else, the team is excited to see how we can help Biofume become another New Zealand innovation success story.

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Photo courtesy NZ Herald. Read the NZ Herald article here.