NZ-based innovation, product development and manufacturing

Words: Arxada NZ

Delivering local crop protection solutions to New Zealand farmers and horticulturalists is at the core of Arxada NZ.

Collaboration across research and development, manufacturing, and the commercial team at a local level allows us to focus on what is important to the local farmer or grower, providing practical solutions specific to all crop types.

Being innovative and collaborative, delivering crop protection solutions, stems back to 1988 for Arxada NZ.

Originally, Arxada was a local, Taranaki based crop protection business specialising in turf management and protection.

Since then, the portfolio has dramatically diversified into broad acre cropping and high value horticulture.

Arxada may not be a company that is well recognised, however its brands such as Headstart, Axcela, Vixen, Esteem and Tag G2 are becoming household names when it comes to tried and proven crop protection products across agriculture and horticulture.

Arxada has significant resources here in NZ, unlike any other crop protection business.

The majority of Arxada’s product range, of over seventy products, is developed and manufactured right here in NZ.

With a base in New Plymouth, these resources include manufacturing sites, state of the art formulation and analytical laboratories, and a dedicated field science site in Hawke’s Bay conducting screening and efficacy trials, alongside other national sites.

The Arxada NZ team is focused on making farming and growing more sustainable and cost effective.

Our dedicated formulation team can enhance an existing product or active ingredient by co-formulating the actives into the same container, designing a built-in adjuvant system including oils, surfactants and safeners, or creating newer methods in manufacturing to optimise performance in the field.

A good example of this is Headstart, where an existing active ingredient exists on the market in granular form, which requires other adjuvants and oils to be added.

Arxada took this active, formulated it into a liquid product, incorporating the complete oil and adjuvant system, creating a robust new product which is simpler to use, crop safe at any stage, and proven to be more effective in-field, with its additional crop and weed claims versus other products based on the same active.

In addition to this, the local Arxada team has other global relationships, enabling access to newer proprietary molecules.

These innovative new molecules, offering new resistance management solutions, are rigorously tested locally to demonstrate their efficacy versus market standards.

Once proven, the registration process begins, which is managed completely in-house.

Arxada’s product Esteem is a good example of this.

Esteem is now widely used in high value horticulture as it is unique chemistry to NZ, known for its efficacy and crop safety, with an IPM fit and BioGro certification.

Arxada’s crop protection identity exists because of its passionate and local people.

The entire team has an affiliation with growing food, knowing where it comes from, and understanding where and how the products they are formulating, testing, manufacturing and recommending all fit into the production of food.

Next time you need a crop protection product, Arxada may have your solution.

It’s local people designing and developing specialised products for NZ farmers and growers.