Biotechnology Research Roadmap - Science and Innovation

Issues or gaps
The impact of biotechnology research on the wider
food and beverage sector is considerably greater than
the value-added end of the food and nutrition research
spectrum. The potential impact is even larger if you
use a broad “farm-to-fork” frame to consider the impact
of biotechnology research on quality improvements to
our agricultural and horticultural exports.
Despite the potential of much of the value-added
food and nutrition research being undertaken in New
Zealand, recent work undertaken for the Food and
Beverage Taskforce indicates that in such a diversified,
fragmented industry sector a gap does exist. The gap
is between the potentially transformational research
currently being undertaken and the industry’s capacity
to pick it up in the future. Part of the reason for this
gap is that industry tends to favour R&D investments
into cost-reducing process innovation over marginenhancing,
biotechnology-driven product innovation. 77
5.5.4 Marine biotechnology
Research strengths
New Zealand has marine biotechnology research
strengths in:
• aquaculture production using genetic techniques
to underpin selective breeding in commercial
shellfish species; and
• the discovery and extraction of marine bioactives
for health and industrial purposes.
Current investment levels and trends
Marine biotechnology research constitutes only
2% of the total government biotechnology research
expenditure. Of this 43% is spent on research into
marine bioactives; the remaining 57% goes on research
to underpin the aquaculture industry.
Issues or gaps
That marine biotechnology funding is small compared
to the land-based primary production industries is
not surprising. Despite the comparative advantages
New Zealand enjoys in the marine environment
(including the breadth of biodiversity and relative
size of our Exclusive Economic Zone and coastlines),
harnessing marine species for industrial purposes
beyond “catching fish” is still at a very early stage of
“domestication”.
There is considerable scope for the future expansion
of activities and a notable overlap with the food and
beverage sector.
The government’s marine biotechnology research
investments are currently exclusively directed towards
applied research. There is a perceived basic-targeted
research “funding gap”.
Like the food and beverage sector, the seafood industry
is diverse and fragmented. It is dominated by the larger,
traditional seafood companies with a proliferation of
smaller enterprises in the aquaculture and value-added
products end of the spectrum. This creates a difficult
environment for biotechnology research to be taken-up
and utilised by industry.
The establishment of Seafood Innovations Ltd (SIL),
a new research consortium, is starting to make some
progress linking research and industry in co-funding
arrangements. In recognition of structural issues,
among other factors within the seafood sector, FRST
approved a revised consortium model for SIL, whereby
co-investment is sought from industry stakeholders on
a project-by-project basis.
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MoRST (2006), Current Food and Beverage Research in New Zealand
Roadmaps for Science : biotechnology research
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