The development of higher yielding wheat cultivars to meet the New Zealand demand for high quality flours for bread and pastry will result from a new joint venture signed today (15 December 2004) between New Zealand and Australian researchers and industry.

New Zealand currently mills 200,000 tonnes of wheat for bread, but New Zealand growers can only supply 100,000 tonnes; the shortfall is imported mainly from Australia. The HRZ Wheats joint venture aims to breed high quality milling wheats for what is known as the ‘high rainfall zone’ in Australia. These conditions are similar to those that exist for wheat growing in New Zealand.

HRZ Wheats involves Crop and Food Research, Australia’s CSIRO, and the Australian industry body Export Grains Centre. Crop & Food Research and CSIRO are contributing their breeding and commercialization skills while the Export Grains Centre is providing an average of $1 million of funding per year for the next 10 years.

Crop & Food Research’s chief executive Paul Tocker says the New Zealand market is not large enough to support a substantial wheat breeding programme, and neither is it a priority for government research funding.

“By partnering with Australia in this programme we can develop higher value cultivars for Australia which are also suitable for New Zealand growers.”

“We expect that within a few years new higher value, higher yielding, milling wheat cultivars will be released in New Zealand. This new venture ensures we retain a milling wheat capability in New Zealand and it provides a platform on which we can develop further breeding projects to add value to the New Zealand industry.”