Discarded skins from Martinborough grapes could be turned into purple gold by a small New Zealand company that is shipping ingredients for food and beauty products across the world.
NZ Extracts, based in Blenheim, says it is eyeing Martinborough vineyards for a future line of its freeze-dried powders.
General manager Glenn Vile
said the company had concentrated on Marlborough sauvignon blanc for the past five years but was launching a new product made from the skin of pinot noir grapes this month.
The company was sourcing all its raw material from Marlborough but Mr Vile said they might look closely at Wairarapa's pinot noir grapes.
Mr Vile said their attraction would not be extra volume, but the different nutrients in Martinborough grapes.
"The first thing we would need to do is identify are there any regional points of difference that you guys could bring to the table."
Mr Vile said the company sourced 15,000 tonnes of grape waste annually from two Marlborough vineyards, removing it for a "reasonable price" compared with what it would usually cost.
Viticulturist Peter Wilkins of Martinborough Vineyard said at the right price they might draw interest from some of the big vineyards in Martinborough.
The common way of getting rid of stalks, skins, and pips was to use it as compost but he said this could be expensive and detrimental to the soil. He couldn't see the financial benefit to his 49ha vineyard, which gave away its 5 to 6 tonnes of grape waste as stock feed. Clive Paton, founder of Ata Rangi, says the benefit of composting and calling themselves an organic vineyard would likely outweigh any savings through cheaper removal.
"I think we would be more interested in the compost, we value the compost for an important part of our vineyard process, particularly with young plants."
But before NZ Extracts steps anywhere near Martinborough, their focus this year will be pushing their products in Asia.
The company is forming distribution deals and hopes to have a strong presence in three to four Asian countries by year's end.
Mr Vile saw huge potential for his company because their international competitors were Chinese businesses shipping boxes of extracts without any brand power. He said his company was marketing its extracts as pure and safe by using New Zealand's "clean and green" reputation and unique chemical-free extraction method.
