Key points: June 2007

The total value of merchandise exports for the year ended June 2007 was $33.41¹ billion, up from $30.8 billion in the year to June 2006. The largest increases in export values were in aluminium (up 24 percent), wood (up 12.4 percent) and dairy (up 12 percent). High world commodity prices for some key New Zealand exports have helped dampen the effects of the strong New Zealand dollar.

New Zealand’s imports increased by 5.5 percent in the year to June 2007 and were valued at $41.1 billion. The largest increases in import values were in ships and boats (up 117 percent), mineral fuel (up 10.2 percent) and electrical machinery (up 10.6 percent).

Exports

• Australia continued to be New Zealand’s principal export market, worth $7.2 billion. Exports to Australia rose by 6 percent in the year to June 2007. The United States and Japan were New Zealand’s second and third largest export markets, receiving $4.5 billion and $3.5 billion worth of goods respectively. New Zealand’s fourth largest export destination was China. Exports to China were worth $1.9 billion in the year ended June 2007. Exports to the Republic of Korea, New Zealand’s sixth largest export market, increased by 21 percent in the latest June year.

   

• The European Union accounted for $5.2 billion or 15 percent of total exports. The most important markets within this region were the United Kingdom, German and Belgium. Exports to APEC economies accounted for 69.5 percent of New Zealand’s total exports and were worth $24.3 billion in the year ended June 2007.

   

• Dairy products were New Zealand’s largest export earners in the year to June 2007, accounting for 21 percent of total merchandise exports and valued at $7.5 billion. Meat and wood were our next largest export earners, accounting for 13.2 and 6.3 percent of total exports respectively. Machinery (5.4 percent), aluminium (4.5 percent), fruit (3.5 percent) and fish (3.3 percent) were also key components of New Zealand’s goods export portfolio in the latest June year.

Imports

• Australia remained New Zealand’s largest source of merchandise imports in the year ended June 2007, with imports valued at $8.5 billion accounting for 20.8 percent of total imports. Imports from Australia increased 12.8 percent compared with the year ended June 2006. Imports from China, valued at $5.2 billion, increased by 18.7 percent. Other major sources of imports for New Zealand were the United States (10.8 percent), Japan (8.9 percent) and Singapore (4.7 percent).

   

• Imports from the European Union were valued at $6.9 billion in the year ended June 2007 and accounted for 16.9 percent of total imports. Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy were the most important sources of imports for New Zealand from within this region. Imports from APEC economies were valued at $30.8 billion and accounted for 75 percent of total imports in the year ended June 2007.

   

• Fuels and oils were New Zealand’s most valuable imported products in the year ended June 2007 – they were worth $5.9 billion and accounted for 14 percent of total imports. Other significant imports included machinery ($5.2 billion), motor vehicles ($4.8 billion) and electrical machinery ($3.7 billion).

Services

• In the year to March 2007, New Zealand’s service exports were worth $12.3 billion, up $450 million from the March 2006 year. New Zealand imported services to the value of $12.1 billion, up $325 million from the year to March 2006.

   

• Overseas visitor arrivals numbered 2.46 million in the year to June 2007. This was a 3.4 percent increase from the year to June 2006. The most important sources of visitors to New Zealand in the year to June 2007 were Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and China. China recently overtook South Korea as our fifth largest source of visitors.

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, machinery and textiles, clothing and footwear. In addition, the five groupings of APEC, OECD², EU (now expanded to 25 members), ASEAN (AFTA)³ and the Pacific have been added to the commodity tables to give more information.

The country aggregations that make up the regions used in the text are defined at the end of this edition. These have been determined on the basis of the Ministry’s requirements and may not correspond with regional definitions appearing in other trade statistics publications. Other definitions, eg services definitions, are those used by Statistics New Zealand, based on standard IMF⁴ criteria. A summary of these also appears at the end of this edition.

Re-exports records goods brought into New Zealand and exported without a ‘substantial transformation’. The 50 percent value-added is used as a yardstick to measure ‘substantial transformation’; 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. Earlier editions of this publication have not included re-export data and have therefore understated exports and overstated the trade deficit.

Some data published in this book is provisional for the most recent period. It has been compiled for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade by Statistics NZ from its INFOS⁵  database – refer to http://www.stats.govt.nz/ for more and sometimes updated data. All data use New Zealand dollars unless otherwise stated.

Notes

(1) Excluding re-exports of $1.5 billion.
(2) Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
(3) Association of South-East Asian Nations; ASEAN Free Trade Area.
(4) International Monetary Fund.
(5) Information Network for Offical Statistics.