According to The New Zealand Herald, some NZ$20million has been spent over the past 20 years on top-fruit breeding by the national research body. Efforts to market the breeding programme for a sale at the end of last year were unsuccessful and since then HortResearch has been in discussion with grower representative organisation Pipfruit Growers New Zealand and its world-wide partner Associated International Group of Nurseries. Talks have concentrated on the rights to market plants and any future developments from the HortResearch programme.

But many growers support the view of the NZ ministry of agriculture which stated in a recent study that HortResearch's breeding programme is integral to the industry's future, reported the Herald. Furthermore, growers have paid into programme funding through royalties on trees and investment in the past through the Apple & Pear Marketing Board.

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