“We are talking about very large sums of money for research and innovation in New Zealand’s most important export industries,” says Don Nicolson, Federated Farmers President.

“Crucially, the PGP demands that agriculture puts its money where its mouths is. Half of the money for the respective programmes is coming from the agricultural sector.

“This is about turning a $26 billion dollar industry into a $52 billion industry in the shortest period of time harnessing everything from physical product to our intellectual property.

“Accordingly, the Federation is keen to bring both sectors together given their respective PGP grants have elements of commonality. We wish to ensure that the agriculture sector maximises the benefits from what is a major investment.

“Both programmes have a key focus on the value chain through to end consumer, so taking a ‘NZ Inc’ approach is not only sensible but it is mutually supporting.

“We cannot afford to repeat past mistakes of working up plans in silos. Agriculture has to come together and Federated Farmers sees this as a major opportunity for that step change.

“We’re particularly excited to see Zespri’s involvement in the dairy programme as this presages that paradigm shift. We need to learn from and work with one another instead of competing at every turn. I think we have common issues that demand common solutions.

“Certainly the meat PGP programme will benefit from that input as the dairy programme will benefit from the meat programme given the emerging meat sector strategy.

“Value capture and passing these benefits back to farmers and growers is vitally important because we provide the basis for New Zealand’s agricultural system and 66 per cent of all exports.

“We now need to fully understand the details of both programmes in order to realise the full potential for New Zealand’s farmers and taxpayers alike,” Mr Nicolson said.