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.

MPI reports favourable climatic conditions led to a continuation of better-than-usual pasture growth during the March 2012 quarter. As a result, farmers achieved near-record carcase weights for slaughtered livestock and an 11.5 per cent increase in milk solids’ production, compared with the same quarter in 2011.

However, the stronger New Zealand dollar coupled with easing international dairy prices meant that overall primary sector export revenue for the quarter was down 2.4 per cent on the previous year, at $8.3 billion.

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.

Total seafood export revenue was up by 9.4 per cent in the March quarter, due to increasing prices and a volume increase of 3.4 per cent.

Forest product export revenue declined 14 per cent, largely due to significant declines in log and pulp exports, however it was still the second-highest quarter on record.

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