KEY POINTS:
The number of New Zealand companies producing biotechnology goods and services tripled in three years and exports almost doubled to $104 million, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The second release of information from the Biotechnology Survey: 2007, which measured the use of biotechnologies and their uptake by organisations, was released today.
It showed the number of "core" companies, such as dairy biotech company Vialactia, tripled from 30 in 2004 to 90 in 2007.
Fifty-seven of the core companies employed fewer than 10 people.
Income for the core group rose from $158m in 2004 to $276m in 2007 - an 80 per cent increase.
Biotechnology expenditure increased 63 per cent over the same period. Exports for the core group have almost doubled, from $53m in 2004 to $104m in 2007.
However, the numbers of organisations in the active group - those operating in fields other than biotechnology and using biotechnology processes, such as Fonterra or Medlab - decreased from 54 to 39 over the same period.
The decrease could be put down to consolidation within the field, and Statistics NZ is being cautious about the figures because some companies were unsure whether they were in the biotechnology field or not.
The number in the research group, including the higher education sector, crown research institutes and other research firms , remained "stable". There were 24 such companies in 2004, and 36 in both 2005 and 2007.
Statistics on the regional locations of organisations using biotechnology were collected in 2007 for the first time.
They show that 20 per cent of the core group have operations in the Auckland region. Core biotechnology organisations and their activities are evenly spread throughout the rest of the country.
The next survey in 2009 will be refined so it collects relevant information from the three distinct groups that make up the biotechnology sector.
- NZPA
