Pine pollen
Project start: 27 October 2020
Project completed: 28 September 2022
MPI funding: $288,500
Industry funding: $288,500
Industry partner: Pine Pollen NZ Ltd
Region: Nationwide
This project aimed to establish the foundations of a New Zealand pine pollen industry, with R&D carried out on harvesting, processing and storage of pine pollen. It also investigated the biochemistry and nutrition of pine pollen, and the global pine pollen market. The project successfully demonstrated that pine pollen can be harvested effectively from certain types of existing pine forests. A large (almost NZD $4 billion) market already exists in Asia for pine pollen, and New Zealand is well positioned to enter it, if large-scale harvest is enabled.
Plant-based testosterone in pine pollen could be a goldmine – MPI media release
Biological control of giant willow aphid
Project start: 25 February 2020
Project completed: 30 June 2022
MPI funding: $326, 315
Industry funding: $142,736
Industry partner: Scion
Region: National
The project trial found that the introduced parasitoid wasp appears to be an effective biological control agent for giant willow aphid, and able to proliferate and spread up to 100km from release locations. At the earliest release sites, monitored for two subsequent years, aphid abundance decreased each year, and the proportion of aphid-free trees increased.
Tiny parasitoid wasp packs a big punch in fight against giant willow aphid – MPI media release
The biology and impact of poplar sawfly
Project start: 21 February 2020
Project completed: 30 June 2022
MPI funding: $120,000
Industry funding: $31,500
Industry partner: Scion
Region: North Island
The project has improved understanding of this pest including likely impact, life cycle, and poplar susceptibility. It found that although spread was as expected, severity of impact was less, and resistance exists in some New Zealand poplar cultivars. This will feed into future work between Scion and Plant & Food Research to consider poplar sawfly’s impact and potential controls.
Can we build a kānuka industry based on chemotypes?
Project start: 11 March 2021
Project completed: 31 May 2022
MPI funding: $68,200
Industry funding: $111,500
Industry partner: Hikurangi Bioactives Limited Partnership
Region: Nationwide
This project has enabled the participants to imagine what a kānuka industry could (and should) look like. It created several key resources and part of the infrastructure that the industry will need to be successful. The project recognised that kānuka is a taonga species, and that Māori must have a special relationship to, and position within, the industry because of their kaitiaki responsibilities to kānuka.
