The NZI Rural Women Business Awards provide an outstanding opportunity to showcase rurally based small and medium enterprises owned and operated by women. The Awards attract extensive media coverage and promotional opportunities. All winners in the NZI Rural Women Business Awards receive free membership to Rural Women New Zealand / Ngā Wāhine Taiwhenua o Aotearoa for one year and join an organisation committed to supporting women and their rural communities. 

All entrants receive feedback on their business based on the information supplied in their entry.  All entrants are offered further support to develop their business from Rural Women NZ and supporting partners. All entrants will receive a free listing for their business on The Country Women’s Collective for one year. Award winners will benefit from coverage of their enterprise in RWNZ’s national media channels. 

Category winners receive prize money and a trophy presented at the NZI Rural Women Business Awards Gala Dinner. Certain categories also receive prizes from Award supporters.  All finalists’ businesses will be featured in national rural media following the awards.  

The NZI Rural Women Business Award Supreme Winner will receive prize money and a contribution toward costs of professional development.

Entrants must indicate the categories they wish to enter. One winner will be chosen for each category. 

• Emerging business: Awarded to a business or enterprise starting out in its journey and achieving exceptional results. Open to businesses/enterprises that have been running for 2 to 5 years. 

• Love of the Land: Working in harmony with New Zealand’s natural resources to create a successful business enterprise supplying food or fibre for consumers here in New Zealand and around the world.   

• Creative at Heart: Businesses that create and showcase original art, products or goods made using rural materials or in rural environments. 

• Innovation: An enterprise that challenges the status quo to bring something new and innovative to the market or utilising rural resources in an innovative way. 

• Rural Champion: A person, business or rural enterprise that champions the rural sector or provides a service to a rural community; an outstanding contributor who consistently goes above and beyond the norm in their support for the rural sector. 

• Rural Health and Wellness Excellence: Recognising an enterprise that makes an outstanding contribution to supporting the health and wellness of our rural communities in New Zealand. 

• Experience Rural: Enterprises inspired by Aotearoa’s diverse, natural resources to deliver unique experiences and showcase rural hospitality. 

• Young Businesswoman: A woman under 31 who demonstrates outstanding leadership of an enterprise making a valuable contribution to a rural community.

• In addition, a Supreme Award winner who demonstrates excellence and outstanding achievement across all aspects of rural enterprise will be chosen from the category winners.

1. Customer Understanding:  How does the entrant demonstrate understanding of customers’ wants and needs, and what are the steps taken by the business to meet those needs. 

2. Contribution to the local community:  What is the enterprise’s impact on the local community.  How is the measured. 

3. Financial sustainability:  The enterprise creates positive cash flow because of business activities and has a plan on how this continues in the future. 

4. Originality and Creativity: What is the creative process, degree of innovation and originality of the offering. 

5. Investment in staff/self: The enterprise has good employment practise that satisfies legal requirements and provides self/employees with personal and professional fulfilment and development. 

6. Environmental Impact: What is the impact on water, soil, air and biodiversity of the enterprise, what steps are taken to manage the impact? 

To be eligible to enter the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards 2026, you must: 

• Be the owner/s and operator/s of a business or enterprise based in rural New Zealand employing less than 30 full-time equivalent staff. 

• Take an active role in the day-to-day operation and management of your enterprise. 

• Your business or enterprise must have at least 50% ownership by women. 

• Previous winners of the Supreme Award at the Enterprising Rural Women Awards or the NZI Rural Women NZ Business Awards may not enter again. 

• Have owned and/or operated the enterprise for at least two years as at the date of entry. 

Completed entries must arrive at the National Office of Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) no later than 5pm on Friday, 27 March 2026. 

Finalists must be available to take part in an interview as part of the judging process on a mutually convenient date in early June 2026. 

Category winners will be presented with their awards at a gala dinner on the evening of Thursday, 23 July 2026 in Wellington. Category winners receive 2 complementary tickets to the gala dinner.  Category winners will have the opportunity to briefly speak about their business during the presentation. 

The judging panel will consider all entries to be true and correct as certified by the entrants and will not be held responsible for inaccurate or misleading information or statements. 

RWNZ seeks to support, strengthen and develop our relationship with our entrants and we may ask you to take part in publicity for the Awards and in promoting RWNZ including media interviews. 

We use the information you provide to assess and judge your entry in the NZI Rural Women Business Awards 2026. This will include contacting your referees and considering information in the public domain for the purposes of judging your entry. 

The judging process entails disclosure to the judging panel and evaluation of your entry by the judging panel. We will apply the information privacy principles (IPPs) and meet the obligations outlined in the Privacy Act 2020, specifically: 

• We will only collect information that is relevant to the consideration of your entry. 

• We will take all reasonable steps to safely and securely protect and store the personal and commercially sensitive information you provide in your entry. 

• We will only use the information you supply for the purpose it was collected. 

The information you provide will be held by us and you may access and seek correction of it.  More information on the Privacy Act 2020 can be sourced from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. 

RWNZ recognises that unforeseen circumstances and adverse events have the potential to significantly affect the entry and judging processes and presentation of the Awards. RWNZ therefore reserves the right to exercise its discretion to determine the appropriate course of action and/or remedy in the event the Awards are impacted by unforeseen circumstances or adverse events which may include postponement or cancellation of the Awards.  RWNZ reserves the right to vary the Conditions of Entry including conditions relating to dates, travel, accommodation and venue and will not be liable for any costs incurred due to such a determination. 

Click to view a sample of the whole entry form to review before starting the application online.