To start the 2026 year off, I wanted to highlight a recent video that CEDA produced to sit on our CEDA.nz website. Designed to be an ‘elevator pitch’ the video provides a clear overview of the work we do for the Manawatū region. It covers our key focus areas and economic development pillars, touches on our three main strategies, and illustrates what makes Manawatū thrive. Importantly, it is designed so that the region remains the hero – CEDA sits in the background as the watermark, demonstrating how we enable business growth, investment, talent, and visitation, rather than promoting CEDA as the primary brand. You can watch the video here.

• Advocacy for Te Utanganui continued throughout the year, with representation at major national and international infrastructure, logistics, rail, and energy conferences, reinforcing the project’s strategic importance to New Zealand’s future freight, energy, and data resilience. This work aligned with ongoing discussions around green energy and hyperscale data centres, including the signing of a partnership agreement between CEDA and Energy Estate.
  
  
• Building on the regional investment prospectus launched in early 2025, CEDA undertook a targeted rollout to ensure the material reached priority stakeholders across the region and nationally. Delivered in partnership with regional collaborators and integrated into the new ‘Invest’ section of the regional website, the prospectus provides a unified and compelling narrative on Manawatū’s investment potential.
  
  
• CEDA and our shareholder councils partnered with the Manawatū Business Chamber at their Regional Economic Update panel discussion event. Over 90 people attended the event, which was held at Te Ahūru Mōwai, Manawatū Community Hub Libraries in Feilding.
  
  
• The Manawatū Garden Festival returned bigger than ever in November, supported by a new ticketing system, and extensive media coverage, thanks to Air New Zealand’s Regional Event Sponsorship Programme. The five-day festival featured 20 public and private local gardens, various workshops and tours, and two major events – the Cross Hills Country Fair, and biennial Hearts and Homes.
  
  
• November also marked the conclusion of The Year of Agrifood 2025, capped by the New Zealand Food Awards being held in Palmerston North. CEDA contributed to a collaborative showcase at the awards, highlighting Manawatū’s strengths across food production, innovation, and enterprise, and reinforcing the region’s position as a nationally significant agrifood hub. This positioning was further strengthened by hosting the ExportNZ ASB Central Region Export Awards in Manawatū for the first time, underscoring the strength and importance of exporting here in the wider region, along with our region’s role in driving food-led innovation and growth.

• Destination marketing activity continued to gain momentum. In November, Manawatū hosted 10 Australian travel trade buyers as part of the Kiwi North famil programme, a new North Island-wide initiative involving 15 Regional Tourism Organisations. As part of the Lower North Island component, Manawatū partnered with Wellington, Wairarapa, Whanganui, and Taranaki to present a collective yet differentiated visitor offering. Early feedback from buyers was highly positive, with Manawatū expected to feature in future itineraries and packaged experiences.
  
  
• This work was complemented by targeted media and content creator engagement, with a busy few months of hosting including a multi-day visit by Kia Ora Magazine which will result in a weekend in Manawatū feature (to be released in March), alongside national and regional stories highlighting local accommodation (Kaitahi Lodge), creative enterprises (Temuka Pottery), our regional gardens, and lifestyle offerings. In addition, high-quality digital content was captured by established social media creators, extending reach across domestic and Australian audiences and providing fully licensed assets for ongoing destination marketing.
  
  
• CEDA also leveraged MBIE tourism boost funding through the CentralNZ collaboration, partnering with eight Central and Lower North Island regions and Wellington International Airport to deliver a targeted marketing campaign into Australia. This has since progressed into a second phase through the Kiwi North alliance, strengthening regional collaboration across the North Island and market presence in Australia.
  
  
• Jerry and Janet attended the PNCC Elected Members retreat to put them through their paces with a Wait, What? Quiz, which is a fun and interactive way to highlight our regional strengths and offering.

Te Utanganui

Te Utanganui has entered a new phase of growth, with a refreshed strategy, a new standalone digital presence, and a step-change in national advocacy that reflects the pace and scale of the hub’s development. Building on the original 2020 framework, the updated strategy sharpens the focus on Te Utanganui as a high-performing, multi‑modal hub that integrates road, rail, air and port connections, reinforcing its role in boosting productivity, strengthening resilience, and enabling investment across priority sectors such as agrifood, logistics, and advanced manufacturing. 

The launch of the new Te Utanganui website provides a dedicated national shopfront for investors, operators and partners, clearly articulating the hub’s value proposition, opportunities and pipeline of activity, while complementing CEDA’s leadership of strategy and investment coordination. Te Utanganui’s profile has also grown markedly, with increased engagement across national industry bodies, central government agencies, media, and a broad network of councils and economic development partners, helping to secure support for enabling infrastructure such as the planned Regional Freight Hub and Manawatū Regional Freight Ring Road. 

Together, these developments reflect the significant pace and scale at which Te Utanganui is growing, with a rapidly expanding cluster of national and multinational operators locating or expanding in the hub, creating jobs and catalysing new investment across the region – future proofing not only our region, but the national freight and logistics network.

Securing central government seed funding to begin construction of the rail hub as part of Te Utanganui remains challenging. CEDA submitted an application for funding through Kānoa, which was not supported. While this was not the outcome we had planned for, and we will continue to seek central government support, the important role the private sector will play in driving the project forward is now clear. This will shape our efforts in 2026, beginning with a Rail Hub workshop in early February as we work towards progressing a staged implementation of that project.

Destination Management Plan

CEDA undertook its fourth Community Sentiment Survey to gather local perspectives on the visitor industry in Manawatū. Capturing the views of our community is fundamental to shaping tourism strategies that support economic growth and enhance quality of life in Manawatū. The survey provides robust insights into local perceptions, strengthening our approach to sustainable regional development, and supports the continued roll out and monitoring of the Manawatū Destination Management Plan (DMP).

The results showed growing positivity and confidence in Manawatū’s visitor sector, with 85.8% of locals recognising its importance to our region and 82% saying they’d actively encourage friends and family to visit. Discover the key findings here.

The Manawatū Garden Festival is a great example of the DMP’s focus to create innovative visitor experiences to grow Manawatū as a nationally significant destination. The festival was aimed at driving visitation beyond the peak season, strengthening ties between locals and visitors, and showcasing the diversity and beauty that makes our region special. Ticket holders largely came from Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton as well as Christchurch and Hawke's Bay. Of those attendees surveyed, 64% stayed in paid accommodation, 72% rated their festival experience as ‘Good’ to ‘Great’, while 82% stated that they would recommend the festival to others.    

Manawatū Regional Food Strategy

The Land Diversification Initiative, supported by tools such as the Land Diversification Report, Crop Suitability Map and newly launched Grower Guides, are helping landowners explore new opportunities and future-proof their operations. This work is complemented by growing global and national collaboration, including Manawatū’s participation in the EU-funded International Urban and Regional Cooperation programme and CEDA’s collaboration with other regional economic development agencies to strengthen primary sector resilience and innovation as part of a bespoke exchange programme funded through AGMARDT. 

Over the last quarters to the end of 2025, CEDA supported a range of businesses across medical science, manufacturing, and retail to strengthen capability and unlock growth. We've been focusing on introducing more businesses into Callaghan Innovation’s Research and Development Tax Incentive team, which enables future business growth and expansion.

Additionally, ongoing focus to connect some of our emerging innovators into the research and development grant space to unlock additional funding through central government services.