$35m plan for kiwifruit quest

READY FOR EXPORT: The world's biggest research and development programme into new kiwifruit varieties is pending.

Zespri Announce New Research Programme

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The kiwifruit industry is to get $35.7 million to spend on the search for new cultivars to match the success of the $460m gold kiwifruit.

Most of the money, $20.5m, will come from grower-owned marketer Zespri and the remaining $15.2m will be given by government research funder the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology over seven years.

It will be the world's biggest research and development programme into new kiwifruit varieties.

The joint Zespri-Plant & Food Research team will target new varieties that look and taste different and have special health attributes.

Already, a red kiwifruit is close to being commercially viable and four promising new cultivars are being taste-tested by shoppers. These include an early ripening, sweet, green variety, an early gold and two long-life golds.

Zespri chief executive Lain Jager said he expected that within the 15-year term of the programme one outstanding commercial cultivar would emerge with forecast sales of more than $300m. The New Zealand-developed Zespri gold kiwifruit brings in more than $468m in global revenue annually.

Plant & Food chief executive Bruce Campbell said the funding was a shot in the arm for the kiwifruit breeding programme.

"We will be able to make a step-increase in the number of new cultivars developed and introduce cutting-edge plant breeding, screening and evaluation technologies to gain greater efficiencies and reduce the time to market."

It would mean an 800 per cent lift in the number of seedlings screened a year and a 500 per cent rise in the number of promising new varieties evaluated in trials on research orchards and grower properties.

Research Science and Technology Minister Wayne Mapp predicted the project would take the kiwifruit industry to new levels of international success. "It demonstrates the Government's commitment to the horticulture sector. It will give New Zealand a commercial advantage over its international competitors."

The horticulture sector aims to double its earnings to $10 billion a year by 2020, with kiwifruit providing $3b of that.

Kiwifruit is New Zealand's largest horticulture export and Zespri is the leading global marketer with sales of more than $1.45b in the 2008-09 season.

Mr Jager said the key to commercial success was integrating the research with a defined and effective market pathway. "By investing in the most rigorous and exacting kiwifruit R&D programme, we can ensure that new generations of New Zealand kiwifruit are the best in the world and that their commercial success delivers value and export earnings to New Zealand and New Zealand growers."

Foundation chief executive Murray Bain said the size of the investment emphasised the importance of the industry. "We have world-leading breeding expertise at Plant & Food Research being matched with Zespri's track record of success."

Exports controlled by grower-owned Zespri
* $1.45b sales a year
* 2700 growers
* 390,000 tonnes produced 
* 30 per cent of world market 
* 60 countries supplied