Tauranga MP Simon Bridges is heralding the government's decision to invest $15.2 million in kiwifruit research and development as a brilliant boon for the Bay.

The government investment is being matched by Zespri International, which is contributing $20.5 million into the programme that will attempt to develop new and improved kinds of kiwifruit; different colours, sweetness, easy-to-peal, storage life.
Zespri is labelling the $35.7 million investment into the collaboration between its Plant & Food Research and the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology as the largest and most significant investment in the history of the kiwifruit industry.
The initial expectation is that this research programme could yield as much as $350 million for New Zealand – along the same lines as the successful gold kiwifruit, which is worth $468 million in exports annually to New Zealand.
'There will be big benefits for all of New Zealand, but this is particularly good for Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty,” says Simon.
'The world's largest research and development programme into new kiwifruit varieties will be based in the Western Bay, meaning a serious injection of highly-skilled high-value work being done here over the long term.
'With 80 per cent of kiwifruit already being grown in the Bay of Plenty, when new kiwifruit varieties are developed this will mean even more prosperity here and will make Tauranga, as the Bay's largest city, an even more exciting centre.
'As our local kiwifruit sector creates more wealth, so will everyone else; from the restaurant and café industry to port workers to car yard owners, we all reap benefits over the long term.”