Fur is flying in Northland over the hunting rights to a pest that has become profitable.
Possum fur buyer Wyn Hibberd said Government departments and regional councils were killing possums and wasting their fur rather than allowing hunters to kill them for enterprise.
"Possums are becoming an asset rather than just apest. No other country in the world would be wasting it like we do," Mr Hibberd said. He estimated the possum industry in New Zealand to be worth $100 million.
Mr Hibberd said he would like to see the Department of Conservation and councils scale back possum control programmes and more opportunities created for private enterprise to make money from exporting possum products.
"Every area they [possums] could be retrieved, we could put hunters in."
The possum industry could also provide employment. Mr Hibberd said he would like to see Work and Income provide training and financial help for those wanting to enter the industry.
He said he paid $60 a kilogram for possum fur, which averages out at about $3 a possum.
Mr Hibberd said he had paid hunters up to $6000 for a week's work.
"People can go straight from the dole to employment."
United Future MP and environment spokesman Larry Baldock - who has been working with Mr Hibberd - said he hoped changes could be made by the end of the year.
"There is a job there for some people. We should not be wasting taxpayers' and ratepayers' money killing possums when they can be used by private enterprise," Mr Baldock said.
The Northland Regional Council spends about $800,000 a year on possum control. Land operations manager Bob Cathcart said there was no problem with fur trappers killing possums before its own contractors did, although "the work they do complements possum control but does not replace it".
