History

For 150 years New Zealand has been a world leader in efficiently producing milk, meat and fibre products from pastoral agriculture.

New Zealand farmers, and the scientists who supported them, have brought food and fibre products to the world. They also introduced a range of pastoral agriculture technologies, including artificial breeding of dairy cows, hybrid ryegrass, white clover cultivars and other novel pasture plants, rotational grazing, electric fences, cures for cobalt and selenium deficiency and vaccines for animal diseases.

In 1992, the infrastructure of government departments and ministries that had supported this R&D and technology transfer was dismantled. In its place was established a series of Crown Research Institutes (CRI).

AgResearch is the largest of these CRI, each of which is an independent, Government-owned, R&D company.

Since its inception, AgResearch has evolved from being a relatively focused contract R&D company into a broader science business with greater global reach.

The key driver of this transition is our long-established, internationally recognised expertise in modern biotechnologies, based on our experience in the biological sciences of agriculture.

AgResearch is now developing a future where its products will improve the quality of life and the environment around the world in a responsible and sustainable way.