New Zealand’s merchandise exports were valued at $39.7 billion in the year ended December 2009, down 7.5 percent from $42.9 billion in the December 2008 year. This annual decrease is the first for a December year since 2003.
The largest decrease in export value was in dairy, down 12.6 percent ($1.2 billion) for the year. The second largest decrease was in mineral fuels, down 35.8 percent ($1.1 billion). The largest offsetting increase was from cereal preparations, up 19.7 percent ($158 million).
The total value of New Zealand’s imports for the year ended December 2009 was $40.2 billion, down 17.1 percent from $48.5 billion in the December 2008 year. The decrease in import values was due to a variety of commodities, including:
- mineral fuels – down 31.7 percent or $2.7 billion
- vehicles – down 36.3 percent or $1.8 billion
- machinery – down 19.2 percent or $1.2 billion.
A 74.9 percent ($651 million) increase in aircraft partly offset the decrease in total imports for the year ended December 2009.
Exports
- Australia continued to be New Zealand’s principal export market, receiving 23.0 percent or $9.1 billion of New Zealand’s exports for the year ended December 2009. The United States and China were New Zealand’s second- and third-largest export markets, receiving $4.0 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.
- Exports to APEC economies accounted for 69.9 percent of New Zealand’s total exports and were worth $27.8 billion in the year ending December 2009. The European Union accounted for 13.8 percent ($5.5 billion) of total exports.
- Dairy products continue to be New Zealand’s largest export earner in the December 2009 year, accounting for 20.5 percent of total merchandise exports and valued at $8.1 billion. Meat and wood were our two next-largest export products, accounting for 13.0 and 5.8 percent of total exports, respectively.
- Applying the level of processing (LOP) classification, in the year ending December 2009, 67.4 percent of all exports were primary products and 27.6 percent were manufactured goods. Of the primary products, 50.4 percent were processed, and 66.1 percent of manufactures were elaborately transformed. New Zealand exported 38.8 percent of all manufactured goods and 15.2 percent of all primary products to Australia. Eighty-two percent of manufactured goods exported to Australia were elaborately transformed.
Imports
- Australia remained New Zealand’s largest source of merchandise imports in the year ended December 2009, accounting for 18.4 percent of total imports. Total imports from Australia were valued at $7.4 billion, a 15.3 percent decrease from the December 2008 year. China was New Zealand’s second-largest source of imports, with a 5.9 percent decrease over the same period and a value of $6.1 billion, or 15.1 percent of total imports. Other major sources of imports for New Zealand were the United States and Japan, which respectively accounted for 10.8 and 7.4 percent of total imports.
- Imports from APEC economies were valued at $29.2 billion and accounted for 72.9 percent of total imports in the year ended December 2009. Imports from the European Union were valued at $6.9 billion for the December 2009 year, and were 17.3 percent of total imports.
- New Zealand’s highest-valued imported product in the year ended December 2009 was mineral fuels, worth $5.9 billion and accounting for 14.6 percent of total imports. Other significant imports included machinery ($5.0 billion), electrical machinery ($4.0 billion), and vehicles ($3.2 billion).
- Under the LOP classification, in the year ending December 2009, 26.9 percent of all imports were primary products and 72.3 percent were manufactured goods. Of the primary products, 58.2 percent were processed, and 88.8 percent of manufactures were elaborately transformed. Manufactured goods are imported from a variety of countries, with almost half of these goods being sourced from China, Australia, and the United States.
Services
In the year ended December 2009, New Zealand’s service exports were worth $12.1 billion, down $617 million from the December 2008 year. New Zealand imported services to the value of $12.4 billion in the year ended December 2009, down $1.3 billion from the December 2008 year.
Overseas visitors
Permanent, long term, and short-term overseas visitor arrivals numbered 2.5 million in the year ended December 2009, a decrease of 1,174 visitors from the December 2008 year. The largest sources of visitors to New Zealand in the year ended December 2009 were Australia with 43.1 percent of all visitors, the United Kingdom with 10.8 percent, and the United States with 7.9 percent.
General issues
The commodity tables show the principal markets for New Zealand’s exports (and some imports) of several product groups, including agriculture, non-agriculture, dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables, forestry, and machinery. Economic groupings, and the geographic country aggregations that make up the geographic regions used in the text, are defined in the appendices at the end of this publication. Other definitions, for example the services definitions, are those Statistics New Zealand uses and are based on standard International Monetary Fund criteria. A summary of these definitions also appears at the end of this publication.
Re-exports
Re-exports record goods brought into New Zealand and exported without a ‘substantial transformation’. The yardstick for measuring ‘substantial transformation’ is ‘50 percent value added’ and above that level, the goods are classified as domestic exports. Trans-shipment goods are not included. Goods that are re-exported will have previously figured in some form in the import statistics.