Our Roots & Vision
Our roots & vision
Troppo sprouted from a wild love for everything leafy, edible, and extraordinary — rare subtropicals, stacked canopy, and community kai in Te Puke, Bay of Plenty. We are an initiative of Vector Group Charitable Trust (NZ registered charity CC45966), mission Envisioning Sustainable Communities Creatively.
Under the trust’s umbrella we grow a plant-loving community where collaboration, skill-sharing, and resilient local food systems can flourish — online through our nursery shop, in the living food forest, and across the wider Kai Resilience network.
Kai resilience lineage
Kai resilience at Vector Group is not a recent add-on. The lineage reaches back before 2000, through Daisy’s Inc, Godfuel, and Vector Group Holdings. A major shift came in 2011 through Pāpāmoa community gardens and the mentorship of Owen Takuira-Ngaropo — work that continues to inspire community gardens and food-forest thinking across the Western Bay.
Vector Group’s Western Bay public record documents kai resilience delivery in Te Puke and the Bay of Plenty since 2011 — food forests, propagation, education, and community connection. Today the national programme face is Kai Resilience — directory, school funnel, and grower tools — with Troppo as the living demonstration and founding hub in Te Puke.
Troppo in Te Puke
Troppo is more than a nursery. It is a tropical urban food forest — proof that a warm, largely frost-free kiwifruit-capital climate can support a diverse backyard supermarket of exotic and nutrient-dense foods. We specialise in:
- Living food forests — stacked canopy, syntropic biomass cycles, and urban kai on a town-scale plot
- Specialist nursery — propagating tropical and subtropical edibles for gardeners nationwide via troppo.nz/shop
- Free grower tools — calculators and quizzes born here, shared on troppo.nz/tools and kairesilience.food/tools
- Skill sharing — workshops, tours, and hands-on learning for beginners and experienced growers
Alongside Grow Te Puke and the wider trust network, Troppo focuses on the exotic, the edible, and the extraordinary — reducing dependence on distant supply chains by growing high-value tropical foods here in the Bay of Plenty.
The Kai Resilience ecosystem
Troppo sits inside a wider network — explore the full map on troppo.nz/tools, or jump to:
- Kai Resilience — national food-resilience directory
- Food Resilience School hub · foodresilience.school.nz — free courses and certificates
- Food Forests New Zealand · Food Forests NZ resource hub
- RegenOS — regenerative land planning
- Food Forest Tours — guided walks
- Kiwifruit.Capital — Bay of Plenty regional gateway
- Kai Resilience programme on vectorgroup.org.nz
Why “Troppo”?
In our world, going “Troppo” is not about losing your mind — it is about finding a passion for the lush, the green, and the self-sufficient. We want more households growing nutrient-dense tropical and subtropical kai in Te Puke and across Aotearoa, with the knowledge and community support to make it real.
Get involved
- Shop plants — troppo.nz/shop ships nationwide
- Use free grower tools — troppo.nz/tools
- Learn online — Food Resilience School NZ
- Workshops & tours — foodforest.tours
- Visit the food forest — by appointment only in Te Puke, Bay of Plenty. Contact us before you travel.
- Collaborate — projects aligned with kai resilience and community growing — we want to hear from you
Let’s build a resilient, connected, tropical Te Puke — one leaf at a time.
Contact: info@troppo.nz · 027 414 4280 · contact form