New Varieties – The Life Blood of Horticultural Production

By  Chris Smellie.

I was once an apple grower. We grew Red & Golden Delicious, Kidd’s Orange, Winesaps & Granny Smith. Later we had Gala and then Splendour.

Today we have an abundance of new apple varieties bred in NZ, some of which are the best in the world. The NZ pipfruit industry is booming.

Now I am involved with the NZ cut flower industry which by comparison is starved of new varieties and languishes as a declining industry. Why?

I do not have all the answers but talking through the issue with Andy Warren, the NZ Flower Grower Association’s member on the ‘GERMAC’ consultative committee, some of the answers are apparent. The purpose of GERMAC is to smooth the path for the entry of new Germplasm [not just for flowers but all horticulture] into NZ.

The constraining details around the importation of new Germplasm can be complex and are largely dependent on availability of resources within MPI and other providers of post entry quarantine facilities, the risk management relative to the product involved, and the resources of the importer.

With regard to the quarantine verification process, some current MPI processes are limited to their staff only, and do not provide opportunity for the ‘Independent Verification Agency’s’ [IVA’s] to become more involved. Apart from reviewing the existing pricing arrangements within quarantine there is also significant time and resources required by MPI to change the current import and verification process.

For new plant species without a current ‘Import Health Standard’ [IHS] the situation can be very frustrating as there can easily be a wait of 3 to 5 years prior to the establishment of an IHS, depending on the economic benefit of the product and its risk profile

However Andy maintains that importation of new varieties is largely up to the growing community. To import plant material there are some key steps:

1. Go to the MPI website and search the ‘Import Health Standards’ as a first step to establish if there is an IHS for the material you want to import from the country you wish to import from.

2. If there is an IHS determine the level of quarantine required and make arrangements for such quarantine space.

3. Do a cost analysis.

4. Assess the viability of the plant introduction

5. Obtain a permit from MPI Plant Imports.

Apart from the process of improving the importation pathways  into New Zealand – removing the barriers, ‘GERMAC’ members are also able to assist individual growers when import problems arise.

Back to that successful pipfruit industry – while some apple germplasm has been imported much of the material has been developed in well funded breeding programmes within NZ.

So who is breeding ornamentals in NZ – a few names come immediately to mind: -  Dr Keith Hammett at Massey Auckland, Lilies International, Zantedeschia breeding by Bloomz at Tauranga & Roger Allen at Eastoveden has bred some hydrangea varieties.

Finally I would like to take a quote from Dr Keith Hammett probably the premier ornamental plant breeder in NZ for a number of decades.

I firmly believed that New Zealand had the potential to become the “Holland of the South Pacific” based on ornamental horticulture.  This belief was based on New Zealand’s natural advantages such as soils and climate and the highest levels of technical skills. 

Sadly changes in Government science policy, irrational biosecurity laws and regulations and increasing human population pressure have stultified any such opportunities. 

I had said:   “We must become a centre of innovation to which the rest of the world looks for new plants”. 

Towards this end I had built a team of colleagues in a variety of institutes, each with high technical skills, to look at the various barriers that prevent hybridisation between species in a variety of genera and to look at the basic mechanisms that determine characters such as the expression of flower colour.  

I still believe that a plant breeder must be a generalist, who looks at the marketplace in order to define goals, has an overview of the germplasm available and is fully up to date with the opportunities offered by developing technology.  “The plant breeder must sit in the middle of the cobweb” 

Hope springs eternal.

Dr Keith Hammett

6^th February 2014