He said the late-planting and early-maturing sunflowers worked nicely as a double crop in rotation, especially with vining peas, and then could go into cereal.
Returns were similar to short cash crops such as peas and there was room to improve average yields of three tonnes a hectare, he said.
The Foundation for Arable Research has just completed a three-year project looking at alternative land uses and identified high-oleic varieties of sunflowers as a promising crop.
Business operations manager Ivan Lawrie said research showed New Zealand had the conditions to lift yields to more than 4.5t/ha.
He said consumer demand was strong as the top-quality oil had a higher smoke point than regular sunflower oil, and many health attributes included low saturated fat content.
Pure Oil produces the oil under its Good Oil brand for domestic consumption and it is also used for crisp making, with the meal made into horse feed.
Nadia Lim and her husband are understood to be trebling last year's 6ha sunflower crop in Central Otago. Photo / Oamaru Mail
Lasers are now used as a cost-effective deterrent to curb crop losses from birds.
Researchers believe growers need at least 60,000 plants per hectare to have a successful crop and reasonably big paddocks to contend with bird damage.
Murney said it was good to have a high-profile person like Lim growing sunflowers at their Crown Range property.
He said they were in talks to see if they could extend the grower-supplier relationship into a joint marketing of oils.
