Disease conquering scientists win $500,000

The team, led by Dr Bruce Campbell, were awarded the Prime Minister’s top science prize at an event at Parliament on Tuesday.

Plant & Food Research says the prize money will be invested in developing the next generation of science technologies to protect plants against biosecurity threats and to develop New Zealand as a hub for bioprotection technologies.

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman congratulated the team and says he looks forward to seeing what they do next.

"When Psa was discovered at a Te Puke orchard in 2010, that could have meant the end of the kiwifruit industry," Chapman says.

"The Plant & Food Research team got their experts on the ground in the Bay of Plenty and the result was the new gold kiwifruit cultivar now sold around the world as Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit."

Forty-eight million trays of SunGold were sold last season, with an export value of $686 million - up 70% on the previous year and increasing by about 10 million trays a year.

"Plant & Food Research stood behind the kiwifruit industry in one of its darkest hours, when Psa was at its worst,” Chapman says.

“The only way forward for the kiwifruit industry was through new varieties that were more Psa tolerant and through new orchard husbandry, and Plant & Food were at the forefront in providing this support,”

“It is not too much to say that without their work, it would be a very different industry today.”