"The farmers are cross. They fear that forestry is going to crowd them off their land," said Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones, in Palmerston North to announce more regional spending.
Still he is convinced of forestry's merits and trying to create more from raw materials in the forestry sector.
"Anything that's going to take raw material in the food and forestry area and turn it into value added, we are prepared to back," Jones said.
Recipients of funding included NZ Bio Forestry Ltd, which received $380,000 towards research into the development of PLA plastics from renewable resources. Usually made from corn, PLA plastic is used in 3D printing and commonly made into single-use food packaging like takeaway coffee cups and shopping bags.
"In New Zealand we have big volumes of sustainable radiata forest but we waste a lot of it," said NZ Bio Forestry Ltd's Paul Morgan. "We're targeting the waste to convert into PLA."