This year's Budget has confirmed ongoing funding for the collection of agriculture and horticultural statistics.

Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said almost $71 million would be spent over the next four years to ensure that policy makers and industry had robust data to make future decisions on.

"The New Zealand Government, as a member of many international organisations, has an obligation to provide accurate and relevant statistics on its economy – and a huge part of that is agriculture. Last year, farming and forestry
were among this country's biggest industries, providing 67 per cent of New Zealand's export earnings.

"It seems crazy to me that any Government could even have considered not having official statistics on such an important part of the economy."

The previous National Government abolished agricultural and horticultural statistics collection in the 1990s, and restored it in 1999 – on a one-off basis.

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