increase font size
Truffles can fetch between $2,500 and $3,500 per kilogram.
Could previously unproductive land be used to produce truffles?
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) seems to think so. It’s providing more than $155,000 in Government funding from MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund to Ohiwa Black Diamond Truffles, a Bay of Plenty-based truffle growing company.
Ohiwa-based couple Matiu Hudson and Annette Munday run the business and will use the funding to share their knowledge with interested growers so New Zealand can grow enough truffles for a robust export industry.
MPI director of investment programmes Steve Penno told Hort News the programme with Ohiwa Black Diamond Truffles meets the SFF Futures fund’s aims of supporting innovation in the food and fibre sector to grow productivity, profitability, sustainability, and jobs.
“It aims to boost capability within the truffle sector, to grow both productivity and profitability,” Penno says.
He adds that as well as growing truffles, the programme aims to develop new food products applying the health benefits of the truffle, with traditional Maori Rongoa (medicinal use of plants) for the hospitality sector.
“Workshops will be held for Māori landowners to grow and sell their own truffles, and the project will also explore export markets.”
This, Penno claims, will grow the industry and therefore create jobs.
Ohiwa-Black Diamond Truffles owner Annette Munday says they have already received orders for approximately 10,000 inoculated truffle seedlings and have helped one family in Kawhia set up a truffiere (truffle farm).
“We’d like to see Māori land trusts and farmers around New Zealand growing truffles on unproductive land,” she says. “It’s an opportunity to make money out of land with poor soil and could offer a side-line income for farmers if they planted seedlings beside trees used for riparian planting, for example.”
Truffles can fetch between $2,500 and $3,500 per kilogram, and set-up costs per hectare for growing truffles range between $35,000 and $70,000.
Munday says each tree is capable of yielding 200 grams to one kilogram in well managed plantations.
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
The apple sector is working with the Government to unlock access to two key markets that could bring millions in revenue for apple growers.
A Palmerston North shearer has been sentenced to six months' community detention and 12 months' supervision after being found to have physically abused three lambs while shearing them.
OPINION: A simpler, clearer, more effective Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.
The country's second largest milk processor is warning against 'complacency' during a review of competition regulations in the dairy sector.
New Zealand's pest problem has reached crisis point, according to Federated Farmers' second National Pests Survey, which shows farmers are spending more money and effort on control — yet pest numbers keep climbing faster than they were two years ago.
Testing confirms H5 bird flu in a single northern giant petrel, found dead on a remote Cape Palliser beach in the Wairarapa, says Dr Mary van Andel, the Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) Chief Veterinary Officer.
"What's for dinner?" may sound like a simple question, but for many Kiwi parents, answering it has become a job in itself.
Fifty Eight years ago, on the 16th of August 1968, August Claas, the founder of the harvesting company and father of Helmut Claas, personally presented a Claas Senator combine harvester to Scottish farmer John Steven.
New Zealand consumers are paying more for beef mince than ever before, with the average retail price now sitting above $24 per kilogram, according to Rabobank.
State farmer Pamu has delivered its strongest operating result on record.
OPINION: The same mainstream media muppets that brought you Jacindamania in 2017 have been flat out pimping for the Opportunities…
OPINION: Your old mate reckons the atrocious way farmers in the UK are treated by their lords and masters in…
