26 July 2012

2 minute read

Oceania

The Ministry for Primary Industries has released a new combined primary industry quarterly report, comprising production and trade statistics for the Dairy, Meat and Wool, Forestry and Seafood industries. It replaces separate quarterly reports for forestry and seafood that were previously released by the Ministry.

The primary sector continued to be an economic driver, with total primary sector exports accounting for 71 per cent of all merchandise exports in the year to March 2012.

Beef production increased 1.4 percent in the March 2012 quarter (compared with the March 2011 quarter) due to increased carcass weights, the highest since 2006. This was despite lower adult cattle slaughter numbers. Lamb production was up 2.4 percent because of increased lamb slaughter numbers and a record average carcass weight of 17.6 kg.

Meat and wool export prices were adversely impacted by an 8.2 per cent and 10.4 per cent appreciation of the New Zealand dollar against the United States dollar and United Kingdom pound respectively, from the March 2011 quarter to the March 2012 quarter.

Exports of beef and veal increased 1.3 per cent to 98 450 tonnes in the March quarter, while export value decreased 4.5 per cent to $570 million because of the strong New Zealand dollar. Beef and veal exports to our major export market, the United States, increased 9.3 percent by volume and 5.3 per cent by value because of stronger demand.

At the same time, total export revenue for the year to March 2012 was up 6.2 per cent on the previous year at $32.3 billion.

Further Reading You can view the full report by clicking here.

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