 Our speaker at Tuesday's meeting was past president Brian McMath introduced by Warwick Leyland. Warwick gave us a brief background on Brian's business activities noting that after his "formal" retirement Brian seemed to be busier than ever he was pre-retirement. He is business development manager of the New Zealand Product Accelerator, a business unit within Auckland University, he is chair of the Franklin Hospice and is involved with Charitable Trusts associated with the Rotary Club of Newmarket. He is also heavily involved in the horse racing industry with his equine nasal strips which are very popular amongst standard-bred and thoroughbred trainers.
Brian's address was titled Trees are More Than Wood. The theme of his address was that more can be done with timber after it is harvested instead of simply exporting logs to China and or Korea. While exports of logs generate significant revenue much more could be done with timber to generate far higher revenue.
Before he got into the meat of his address Brian gave us an update on the New Zealand product accelerator. In short, It was formed in 2013, it has more or less permanent funding from the crown, it engages with all union New Zealand universities, it helps New Zealand companies to tap into the capabilities of those universities, it is pull science rather than push science, enables companies to connect and focus on tomorrow's economy.
Turning to his theme, Brian observed that Genesis Energy which operates the Huntley power station has been trialling burning carbonated wood pellets in one of its generators as opposed to burning coal. At first blush, a good idea but once it is considered more closely problems arise. The wood pellets are imported from Canada, they have been processed effectively and converted to charcoal which is then burnt to power the generator. The pellets are expensive and so any benefits are diminished significantly. It's probably better to use the coal in and around Huntly as efficiently as possible.
Brian talked about the potential value of bio products manufactured from wood. He noted that we are in effect going back to the future pointing to casein buttons which were manufactured in the 1930s and 40s from waste wood products. He noted there was significant potential value for bioproducts from timber in New Zealand. He pointed to the value triangle as essentially integrating source materials and processes into a commercial value chain instead of shipping raw material to Asia. This means tapping science and technology to produce from wood, pharmaceuticals such as tanning chemicals anti-microbials and antiseptics, Nutremtics such sugars and organic proteins, High-end chemicals such as polymers, biofuels such as biogas and low-end chemicals.
Brian is involved in a working group involving all players in the forestry field. At the behest of the working group KPMG provided a report which suggested that there was an opportunity to increase the economic value of the forestry sector from the application of biotechnology to timber. The main point of Brian's address is that we do need to add value to our timber exports. Doing so would not only bring value to the economy but it would also support the zero carbon economy we hear so much about.
We are not the only country looking at this biotechnology Finland and Canada are big players. About $16 billion has been added to the Finnish economy through its pursuit of bioproducts. It also adds to societal value value. It creates high skilled jobs and lifts skill sets. Additionally, there are environmental values through possibly the use of um slash which is otherwise burnt or simply left to rot. Paragraph Brian also made the point that as Mari owned 30% of forestry in New Zealand there is significant upside for that particular group of New Zealand society.
There is a need to align the forestry selector so it heads in a coordinated approach. Policy support is needed to encourage innovation and innovation and creativity. The new government seems to be making the policy changes to achieve that. In particular, the new government is supporting the innovative process to develop rather than talk about bioengineering in the forestry sector. To do that the intention is to set up a bio innovation centre in Rotorua with Zion. The aim is to test various bio products to find out if they work or not and if they do work take them to market. A concept very similar to the Food Bowl a pilot-scale food technology plant near the airport where existing companies and start-ups innovate, scale up, and commercialize new food products. If it can be done with food then the same concept can be applied to timber. Brian's address was very interesting and was enjoyed by those members present. |
