• Research Capabilities
  • Sustainable land and water use
  • High performance plants
    • Breeding for targeted traits
    • Safety of gene biotechnologies
    • Technologies for growing gourmet foods
    • Natural pigments to enhance visual appeal
    • Bioactives from plants and produce
    • Increasing the value of cut flowers and foliage
    • Research programmes
  • Personalised foods
  • High value marine products
  • New biomolecules and biomaterials

The demand for out-of-season gourmet products in the Northern Hemisphere provides a valuable market for Southern Hemisphere producers. We provide growers and exporters with the technology to produce high quality products for both international and local consumption. Particular research interests include truffles and other specialty mycorrhizal mushrooms, and Asian and South American vegetables, condiments and flavours.

Edible mycorrhizal fungi - a high value industry for New Zealand

Success with producing Périgord black truffle and our research on production systems for other mycorrhizal species supports New Zealand's edible fungi industry.

Mycorrhizal fungi that form on most plant roots share a symbiotic relationship with their hosts. While the plants benefit from access to minerals in the soil, they provide a place for the fungi to live and a source of energy for them.

In the past 30 years, edible mycorrhizal mushrooms (like truffles and porcini) have been part of the broadening range of foods gracing restaurant tables and the shelves of our delicatessens and supermarkets. Mycorrhizal mushrooms are seasonal and best eaten fresh. Most of them do not preserve well and are mainly collected from the wild in the Northern Hemisphere.

Crop & Food Research has identified the production of edible mycorrhizal mushrooms in New Zealand for out-of-season Northern Hemisphere markets as an excellent opportunity. Development of systems to inoculate plants with specific mycorrhizal fungi began in the 1980s and the first Périgord black truffles were harvested five years after planting at a truffière, near Gisborne.

Routine laboratory techniques have been developed for inoculating plants with:
Périgord black truffle (Tuber melanosporum)
bianchetto (Tuber borchii)
shoro (Rhizopogon rubescens)
saffron milk cap (Lactarius deliciosus)
porcini (Boletus edulis)
matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake)
burgundy (Tuber uncinatum).

For many of these fungi species, Crop & Food Research has well-established and commercial partners.

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