Chinese dairy demand bolsters New Zealand trade surplus

WELLINGTON - New Zealand ran up a small trade surplus in the 2016 calendar year, with dairy exports to China providing the biggest single boost, the government statistics agency said Thursday.

Overall, New Zealand's trade surplus with the rest of the world last year stood at NZ$3.7 billion ($2.64 billion), according to Statistics New Zealand.

Total exports were NZ$70.1 billion ($50.05 billion) and total imports were NZ$66.4 billion ($47.41 billion).

The top export destination was Australia, with a value of NZ$12.8 billion ($9.13 billion), followed by China at NZ$12.3 billion ($8.77 billion).

New Zealand sent NZ$2.7 billion ($1.92 billion) of dairy products to China in 2016 year - its largest export earner - up from NZ$2.4 billion ($1.71 billion) in 2015.

New Zealand ran a trade deficit with the European Union, its biggest imports provider.

"Europeans are big buyers of New Zealand meat and more of them are travelling to New Zealand," international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said in a statement.

"However, the trade balance overall is in the EU's favor due to our imports from there."

New Zealand imported NZ$11.7 billion ($8.35 billion) worth of goods and services from the EU in 2016, which accounted for a sixth of total imports, but it exported NZ$8.3 billion ($5.92 billion) of goods and services to the EU, leaving a deficit of NZ$3.4 billion ($2.43 billion).

"We spent more on importing cars from the EU than they spent on importing meat from New Zealand," Kwon said.

However, New Zealand had trade surpluses with 16 of its top 25 trading partners in 2016, including Australia, China, the United States, and Japan.

The three largest goods import expenses were electrical machinery and equipment from China, vehicles, parts and accessories from Japan and vehicles, parts and accessories from the EU.