A New Zealand startup transforming rejected kiwifruit into a plant-based leather alternative has entered talks with BMW, Rolls Royce and Volkswagen, with 80 other brands now seeking to work with it.
Materially Kiwi, founded by Shelley Houston, uses kiwifruit rejected by the export industry — fruit deemed too damaged or imperfect to sell — and processes it into a flexible, durable material suitable for handbags, car interiors, clothing and even conveyor belts.
The company said 80 national and international brands are now seeking to work with it and discussions are ongoing with BMW and Volkswagen about using the material for vehicle interiors.
“We now have 80 brands, both nationally and internationally, who want to work with us,” Houston told Seven Sharp.
“It’s amazing to see where this could go.”
From kitchen to laboratory
Houston, who doesn’t have a background in textiles, began developing the material at home, working without a blueprint.
“Everything is in my book. Every time I’ve had different tests on what’s worked and what hasn’t,” she said.
Early batches of the kiwifruit material took 15 to 20 attempts before she had something viable, going through at least two blenders in the process.
The material is produced by breaking down kiwifruit’s naturally high cellulose and polysaccharide content into workable biomaterial.
“These materials can be quite tough when you engineer them correctly — they can also lend to nice flexibility,” said Dr Angelique Greene of the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science in Rotorua, which partnered with Houston to scale the process up once it eventually outgrew her kitchen.
One kilogram of kiwifruit currently yields one square metre of material — a ratio that would determine the commercial viability of the product.
The company had to rebrand along the way too. An early name trading on ‘Kiwi leather” was quietly retired after customers began assuming it involved the bird.
“Unfortunately, we had people think we were skinning kiwis, which is awful,” Houston said.
The plastic-free challenge
The most significant technical hurdle had been water resistance. Biomaterials are naturally hydrophilic and the conventional industry solution was to incorporate plastic — something Houston refused.
“In the natural world, there is water everywhere, and biomaterials also love water, which is not great,” Greene said.
The research team worked through multiple iterations of sustainable molecules and biomaterials to improve durability without synthetic polymers.
“That took a while. But we got there.”
The finished product is now available in multiple colours, can be embossed with crocodile or snake-skin prints, and is thinner and more flexible than Houston’s early kitchen tests. A fabric backing was also added during the research phase.
Alternative leather is a rapidly expanding market globally, with sustainability pledges from fashion and automotive brands driving growth.
Many large manufacturers have publicly committed to reduce or eliminate the use of animal-derived products, a gap plant-based alternative are poised to fill.
As a premium export brand itself, the by-product of New Zealand kiwifruit not only carried marketing value but also addressed a real waste problem.
What’s next?
A pilot factory is planned for the Bay of Plenty — the heart of the country’s kiwifruit-growing region — positioning the business close to its materials.
Immediate priorities included scaling production and refining the long-term durability profile of the material.
“It’s finding that balance of having it last but, when it breaks down, it’s not going to be anything toxic,” she said.
One quality control issue, however, has proven stubborn. The material looks convincing enough that people at trade events still occasionally attempt to eat it.
“We did have a sign saying ‘please, do not eat me’ but people still try.”