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Kiwifruit sorting - Source: ONE News -
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Kiwifruit growers say they stand to benefit from involvement in pre-commercial trials and the introduction of quality new cultivars in the wake of a $35.7 million taxpayer-backed investment developing new kiwifruit cultivars.
More than $15 million will come from taxpayers, and the remaining $20.5 million from grower-owned marketer Zespri International.
Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) says it is enthusiastic about the future wealth-creation opportunities for the sector.
"This is a win-win for growers, Zespri, the kiwifruit industry and New Zealand," says the growers' president, Peter Ombler.
"We are investing in our future."
The research consortium comprises the government's science funding agency, Foundation of Research Science and Technology (FRST), Zespri, and its research partner Plant and Food Research - which includes the plant breeders from the former HortResearch state science company.
HortResearch bred the Hort16A golden kiwifruit - which brings in more than $468 million in global revenue annually - but passed the plant variety and marketing rights to Zespri. It also has a collection of at least 23 different species of kiwifruit, from which it has been breeding novel cultivars to follow the golden kiwifruit to market.
Molecular biologists at Plant and Food have compiled genetic data to help plant breeders select new cultivars with increased health properties and exciting colours and flavours.
Kiwifruit gene sequences identified over eight years are being used by the company's breeders to speed up development of new kiwifruit varieties through marker-assisted selection.
Researchers cross-breed plants to create new varieties, but were able to make a quick estimation of their potential commercial potential by screening DNA for marker genes linked to desirable fruit traits.
Ombler says the new investment would provide a clear roadmap for growers to share in the significant wealth creation opportunities with the prospect of quality new cultivars that have strong and sustained commercial viability.
As potential cultivars came through the system, increasing numbers of growers would be given the chance to be involved in pre-commercial block trials.
A red kiwifruit is close to being commercially viable, and four other promising new cultivars - an early ripening, sweet, green variety, an early gold and two long-life gold fruit - are being tested in-market by shoppers.
Earnings of $3 billion a year from kiwifruit are expected to underpin horticulture sector earnings of $10 billion a year by 2020 - double the sector's current revenues.
Zespri is already the leading global marketer with sales of more than $1.45 billion in the 2008-09 season, from exports of 390,000 tonnes from 2,700 growers.
Horticulture New Zealand says it is good that the government has taken a long-range view of the importance of science.
"The only way New Zealand can compete cost-effectively on the international market is to get smarter about the products we provide to the market," says HortNZ president Andrew Fenton, a Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower.
"We are a high cost producer, so we have to use science, research and technology to find new products and develop smarter ways to grow better products."
Export earnings from kiwifruit have doubled to over $800 million since 2000, but he says the key to the future growth was not to double the tonnage of kiwifruit, but to produce higher-value fruit.
