Voting has again been delayed on a compulsory levy proposal for the country's apple and pear growers.
Orchardists were to vote this month but the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has recommended it take place in July so it is based on production from this season's crop.
Pipfruit New Zealand
chief executive Peter Beaven said legislation required that voting be based on the previous 12 months' production.
A ballot before July would require growers to guess what their production-weighted vote should be.
Pipfruit NZ said it had budgeted on receiving $3.6 million in levy funds this year and $2.2 million of it would go directly on research and development.
Of the $2.2 million, $900,000 is invested in its commercial development company Prevar. Another $1.3 million will be invested in other research projects.
The $900,000 that Pipfruit NZ puts into the breeding programme with Prevar is expected to attract a further $7.2 million of Government science funding over six years.
Beaven said the $1.3 million spent on other research would leverage a further $2.77 million of Government research funds.
First updates on the 2006 crop will be made in about two weeks.
"Initial reports are that the crop has excellent colour and taste, but volume in early varieties may be down a little on the pre-season estimate of 15.5 million cases," Beaven said.
The largest contributors to the export crop are expected to be Hawkes Bay with 8.7 million cases and Nelson with 5.6 million.
Together, they make up 92 per cent of the domestic harvest.
Statistics New Zealand said last week land planted in apple orchards fell 6 per cent to 10,980ha between 2002 and 2005 and pear orchards were down about 25 per cent (720ha).
- NZPA
