Steve Maharey, Massey Vice-Chancellor. Photo / Sarah Ivey
A $16.65 million programme to develop and commercialise new ways to process food could add $250 million a year to New Zealand's export earnings by 2032 according to its lead scientist.
Massey University professor Richard Archer is heading up the six-year project which is being funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and will involve collaboration from AgResearch, Plant and Food Research, the Riddet Institute, the University of Auckland and the University of Otago.
Archer says the main idea is to find technology which can be used across multiple food groups whether that was dairy, meat, fish or fruit and vegetables.
So far 11 projects have been set up with 10 on the initial priority list.
Archer says the projects range from looking at better ways to get milk from remote locations to remote factories in as good a condition as possible to upgrading lesser quality meat and investigating the drying of fruit and vegetables.
"Currently, much farm gate production leaves New Zealand with only minimal processing, particularly Maori food assets, which are now concentrated in primary production."
He says it is hard to pin-point exactly how much New Zealand earns on its current value-added exports but total agricultural exports were worth $28 billion a year to the economy. A large proportion of that is dairy but other sectors have been identified such as the wine industry which bought in around $1 billion a year.
Archer said agricultural exports are growing by around 13 per cent per year but there is still scope to increase that.
Research by Massey University has pointed to an extra $250 million worth of export income which could be garnered by 2032 through new technology. "We can't guarantee that but we think that is what it could do."
The research is being carried out by six providers and will be overseen by a governance group.
It is a strength of the university that we have researchers with rich industry experience able to bring such a programme together.
But not all of the projects are expected to come to fruition.
"A project could get stopped if the commercial purpose disappears," Archer says.
That's a big change from the typical model where research can be worked on for years before it ever gets to the commercialisation stage.
"We are going to try and do things in a different way.
"We usually spend years in labs before it is commercialised."
Archer says it is hoped that the first project will be commercialised within two years and would be used as a guide for the others.
"If we can get the first attempt commercialised then we learn the problems really well and that steers the rest of the project."
The programme will be closely linked to industry with around 30 companies already involved.
Archer says those companies will be the first to get their hands on the new technology but he expected others to join the programme.
"We hope to double that number."
Michael Guthrie, managing director of Mainland Poultry, one of the firms signed up to the programme, says it is exactly what the company needs to ensure its products are suitable for new export market opportunities.
"Until now the risk of developing new technology was too great for us to take on our own," Guthrie says.
The programme is closely linked to the New Zealand Food Innovation Network and will make use of the regional product development centres based in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Christchurch and Dunedin.
It utilises and widens the networks of FoodHQ, the Manawatu-centred cluster of agrifood business innovation organisations.
Archer says around 40 per cent of the research will be undertaken in the Palmerston North region.
Plant and Food chief executive Peter Landon-Lane says the large-scale collaborative approach to the research will be the most efficient way for New Zealand to make rapid progress.
AgResearch research director Warren McNabb says it will create a high level of engagement between an extremely large cross-section of the New Zealand food industry.
Massey Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey says the programme is a great example of aligning research capability with industry need and national necessity.
"It is a strength of the university that we have researchers with rich industry experience able to bring such a programme together."
The new research programme is designed to sit alongside existing funded programmes, including the High-Value Nutrition national science challenge, the industry-targeted Primary Growth Partnerships and the BioResource Processing Alliance which focuses on returning value from various biological product streams that would otherwise find only low-value outlets or go to waste.