The University of Canterbury was to be a co-funder.
New Zealand Dryland Forests was set up by the Marlborough Research Centre in 2008 as a regional research and development start-up project, supported by three forestry industry partners; the University of Canterbury NZ School of Forestry, Ngāi Tahu-owned Proseed NZ and Marlborough’s Vineyard Timbers.
The partners added a commercial operation to New Zealand Dryland Forests in 2022.
Patterson told the council’s economic, finance and community committee the council money was for “seed research and seed improvement”.
His report said it would support the commercial operation of the newer partnership.
Mayor Nadine Taylor asked Patterson if anyone at the council had been part of the conversation to commercialise New Zealand Dryland Forests.
“Because when you say MRC is an investor, it’s actually the council funding round that we give you that’s been invested, so I was curious about whether a conversation had been had with council to commercialise that?”
Patterson said he did not know.
The centre received $300,000 a year from the council.
Last year, Taylor was critical of how the centre was spending its operational funding, telling it to stick to research and to be more aligned with “council’s outcomes”.
The programme bred hard wood, or XyloGene eucalypt, and sold about 400,000 seedlings in the 2023-24 year.
“It doesn’t actually make a lot of money at the moment,” Patterson said.
“So 400,000 trees sounds like a lot, but the reality is in terms of getting a viable business we need to be in that three to four million trees per annum.
“What we are trying to do is substitute the importation of hard wood into New Zealand by growing it locally. It’s a long-term game.”
Other funding allocated was $30,000 for meteorological services, $115,000 for soil carbon research, $119,400 for winery wastewater research, $15,000 for a Charles Sturt PHD scholarship, $13,000 for a New Zealand Wine Centre internship and $7000 for herbicide trials.
Almost all of the projects had other funders and were signed off by the board of MRC, which included a council representative.
Taylor later said she was happy for the committee to sign off on receiving the report but wanted to add a couple of amendments to the agenda item.
She said while it took time to “turn a ship” she thought the centre’s KPIs needed to better reflect that the MRC needed to use its funding for more than just viticulture projects.
She thought the long-term plan working group was best placed to work on this.
“Also that we review the MRC funding agreement to the long-term plan group for review, to ensure that council investment is protected where ratepayer funding research is commercialised.”
This did not impact the amount of funding for MRC but would ensure there was better communication.
Deputy mayor and committee chair David Croad said reviewing some elements was important.
“I think the commercialisation end could potentially be a can of worms ... but look I think it’s nothing more than signalling we want to have further conversations.”
Patterson, who started the job on July 1, was also undertaking his own review of the function of the research committee and their funding processes.
This was expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Marlborough Research Centre was putting council money into a commercial operation when it is putting the money into research that supports a commercial operation.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
