It is also hoped the move will strengthen rural communities and open opportunities for Māori landowners.
Despite shaky regulations that have caused fluctuations, the global demand for cannabis in North America, Europe, and even Australia, is positioning cannabis as an important crop sector.
“The long-term demand does seem to be constantly moving upwards… Globally, I think it’s fair to say that the easing of regulatory restrictions and the acknowledgement of clinical efficacy is actually leading to a steadily broadening market for cannabis products,” said Andrew Kelly, chairman of the JV.
The government’s interest stems from the potential for cannabis to emerge as a significant new crop, and by extension, a new industry within New Zealand’s already highly developed agricultural sector.
As a country that has long relied on farming excellence to drive economic growth, the prospect of adding a fresh, high-value agricultural category is seen as a strategic opportunity.
In 2022, the government announced support for the medicinal cannabis industry with a NZ$13m contribution form MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund to Puro, the country’s largest medical cannabis grower.
“Now is the perfect time to grow this high-value industry, as international demand for medicinal cannabis takes off while New Zealand is amid an export boom,” said then Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor.
New crop, new opportunities
Kelly told AgTechNavigator that New Zealand’s indigenous Māori community has a strong interest in growing this sector, not just because it is a high-value crop, but because of its medicinal properties.
“It comes with medicinal benefits, particularly for pain and anxiety, which are very important to Māori as a people. The are traditional medicine people who understand plant medicines and the sensitive, careful way they need to be applied, not just taken blindly. They have a whole culture around preparing medicines and placing the patient in the right environment for them to work. All of that applies to cannabis.”
He added that Māori farmers would be the perfect guardians – or kaitiaki – of the crop.
“Māori iwi own very large parts of the New Zealand land mass, and they are very good farmers. They are intergenerational farmers; they farm with a hundred-year plan, they don’t farm for the one year. This is something they can become leaders in because they are natural kaitiaki. They do it with long-term intention.”
Furthermore, building the cannabis sector could strengthen rural communities.
“Like many countries, we’re suffering a bit of a desertion of small towns as the cities are growing. Another social motive here is if there were a high-value crop and it were in the hands of landowners like Maori, it could help either reverse that or retain or build social cohesion back again,” said Kelly.
Agronomy first
To reduce capital and energy costs, the crop is grown outdoors and in greenhouses.
The JV’s short-term plans focus on scaling efficiently, with plans to increase plantings each year. This year, the plan was to increase planting fivefold.
At the same time, it is exploring varietal differences and plant selection as part of its cultivation strategy.
It aims to identify the best-performing plants from each crop and increase their numbers, a process that can deliver early gains quickly.
The company is also prioritising agronomic traits such as yield, measured not only in total biomass but also in flower yield and even smaller structures on the plants.
Early work on selecting for bioactive compound profiles has begun, but this is still in its infancy.
“We’re getting the agronomy right, and then once we get the agronomy right, it becomes more sensible to then start tuning the product that’s coming off the plants,” said Kelly.
