New Zealand wine growers helped fund research and development of the company's revolutionary biological control product, BOTRY-Zen, to control the grape-wasting botrytis fungus.
It is now manufactured in Dunedin.
Together with HortResearch, New Zealand Winegrowers own intellectual property on some of the technology.
New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said in an interview at the Romeo Bragato conference in Christchurch yesterday that while he did not know how much money had been invested, of more relevance to the industry was that the botrytis-fighting products were still available to grape growers.
"Our view is this is not a product failure, but rather [a failure] in getting the product into the marketplace and growing market share," he said.
Just last year he said the company sold everything it had produced.
Botry-Zen chairman Max Shepherd yesterday announced Botry-Zen could be sold.
Mr Gregan had not been involved in running the company or in any discussions but said the two fungus-fighting products, BOTRY-Zen and AMOUR-Zen, fitted with the industry's sustainability policy.
"We've got a sustainability policy where we want everybody operating sustainability programmes by 2012 and products such as these fit that policy."
