Asia After Five — Agribusiness in ASEAN

About the event

The Asia New Zealand Foundation Te Whītau Tūhono in partnership with the ASEAN New Zealand Business Council (ANZBC) warmly invites you to join us for an evening dedicated to hearing stories from a range of Southeast Asian agribusiness entrepreneurs who are visiting Aotearoa as part of the Foundation's ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative (YBLI) programme.

The delegation of 11 entrepreneurs arrive in Auckland and will travel through the country visiting New Zealand agribusiness enterprises along the way. In Hamilton, they will attend Fieldays, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest agricultural event and the ultimate launch platform for cutting-edge technology and innovation.

At the Auckland Asia After Five event, the entrepreneurs will share stories about their companies, provide insight into the agribusiness sectors in their home countries and share their impressions of New Zealand to date. The entrepreneurs are from countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

The event will follow our popular Asia After Five format — where we blend Asia-focused panel discussion with an evening of drinks, nibbles and making connections. 

Date/ time: Friday, 6 June, 4:30-6:30pm
Venue: MC Centre 8 Hardinge Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010

Tickets are limited so get in quick! We ask you RSVP by Thursday, 5 June 2025, for catering purposes.

Meet our Panelists

Throughout the evening, we'll hear from a selection of four panelists from the delegation, while we invite you to network and meet the rest of the travelling delegation afterwards. Read on to get a glimpse of their experiences:

1. Duong Ly - Vietnam

Co-Founder and Director of External Affairs at Fuji Import and Export Joint Stock Company.

Duong has dedicated herself to advancing Vietnam’s fruit retail industry, growing from a single store in 2015 to 51 stores across 18 provinces, sourcing premium fruits from over 10 countries. Duong also has a role as a lecturer fostering entrepreneurship at Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry.

2. Dal Polot - Philippines

Founder & CEO of Ginto Fine Chocolates

Dalareich P. Polot is the founder & CEO of Ginto Fine Chocolates, and the co-founder of Dalareich Food Products/ Dalareich Chocolate House. The media dub her in the Philippines “Bohol’s Chocolate Princess.” She is very dedicated to her advocacies on sustainable community development, social entrepreneurship, cacao farming, community-based tourism, and women empowerment. She has been featured in magazines, media news articles, and on television locally and internationally. She has been a recipient of the Takeda Foundation Young Entrepreneurs Award 2018 at the University of Tokyo, and in 2019, received a Gold Award for her drinking chocolate product in the London-based Academy of Chocolate Awards.  In 2022, she was named as the first Filipina who received the Goldman Sachs/ Fortune Global Women Award 2022 during the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in California, USA, and was also named as the Grand Winner of the Asia CEO Award YoungShero of the Year 2022 in the Philippines. 

3. Harith Ridzuan - Malaysia

Founder & Director of The Green Factory

Harith is an entrepreneur, advocate, and educator with over 17 years in sustainable design, responsible manufacturing, and eco-friendly sourcing.  His mission is to help businesses seamlessly integrate sustainability, from innovative products and effective waste solutions to strategic sustainable practices through his brands The Green Factory, Dapo, and Nokta Furniture.  Harith has won a number of awards such as Sustainable Energy & Green Technology International Innovation Award: Green Materials, Design, Products & Manufacturing Processes; the 2022 – Malaysian Timber Council (MTC) Industry Awards Distinction in Environment & Sustainability for contributions to green manufacturing, and in 2023 – Malaysian Bumiputera Timber & Furniture Entrepreneurs (PEKA) – Young Entrepreneur Award for Green Furniture. 

4. Ray Poh - Singapore

Founder of Artisan Green & Merchant Brothers

Artisan Green is a 300sqm indoor farm operation with a digital farming technology platform in conjunction with Siemens.  It is currently in the midst of constructing a 5,500sqm indoor farm in phase 1 of a new farm project in Singapore to supply up to 30 tonnes of monthly produce by 2026.  Merchant brothers is one of Singapore’s leading foodservice distributors specialising in fine food.  Ray was also a Lieutenant in the Singapore army, responsible for coordinating, preparing and monitoring all overseas operations of Singaporean troops in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Timor-Leste, and participated in the Singaporean humanitarian aid relief operation to Padang, Indonesia.