Fruit exports help boost trade surplus

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Publication title: Bay of Plenty Times

But a sluggish economy also squashed imports, with an economist worried feeble demand showed companies and consumers were under pressure

Stats NZ said exports in March were $6.5 billion, well up from $5.9b in February. Imports were down to $5.9b, compared with $6.1b a month earlier.

The monthly trade balance was a surplus of $588 million. It was the first monthly surplus since May 2023 and only the third since May 2022.

Year-on-year, March goods exports were up $240 million and imports were down $1.9b.

Kiwifruit exports last month exceeded a quarter of a billion dollars, up 125 per cent from a year earlier. Apple exports increased 27 per cent year-on-year to $124m.

“They got hammered last year during the storms,” Westpac senior economist Darren Gibbs said of fruit exports.

The industry had to recover from the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and especially Cyclone Gabrielle, in January and February 2023.

Exports to China of logs, wood, and wood articles were up $95 million compared to March 2023, which Gibbs said was surprising and he did not expect to continue given lacklustre demand in China.

But he added: “The real surprise, which is a less positive story, is imports were incredibly weak in March. That tells you something about the state of domestic demand in the economy.”

Year-on-year, imports of art and antiques from the European Union were down $187m and overall were down $191m, or 98 per cent.

“There was a once-off large import of significant artworks in March 2023, whereas this month marks a return to more typical levels,” a Stats NZ spokeswoman said.

She refused to disclose the details, citing confidentiality, but confirmed Stats NZ stood behind the data as a true measure of imports.

An art dealer said a possible shipment that might’ve been accounted for as an import in this time was that of Chinese fashion designer Guo Pei, whose work features at Auckland Art Gallery.

He speculated that some of the art US philanthropist the late Julian Robertson donated to New Zealand could have been accounted for in this way.

Machinery imports down Imports of Chinese electrical machinery and equipment were down $92m.

Gibbs said overall imports of capital machinery...