Auckland flower research company Multiflora Laboratories says it wants to expand the $7 million export market for calla lilies.
It is using an advanced tissue culture technique which is expected to give growers a start on other exporters by producing bigger tubers that will flower earlier.
The company expects growers will plant
120,000 of its initial mini-tubers this year. The plants will be kept growing in a tissue culture medium for six months longer than normal.
Multiflora managing director Sandra Simpson said the plants would then go into the ground for six months before being dug up again, so that growers would get larger tubers that would fetch better prices overseas and produce flowers earlier than usual.
She said the early flowering could help give New Zealand growers the edge against competitors in the lucrative markets of the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Europe. The lilies are New Zealand's second-most valuable cut flower crop after orchids. Top stems can fetch between $3 and $4 overseas.
New Zealand's competitors include South American, African and Asian countries, although some New Zealand growers have lilies planted in places such as Kenya to provide a counter-seasonal supply to the lucrative Northern Hemisphere markets.
- NZPA
