Meat And Dairy Sales Surge In December Quarter

Meat and dairy boosted the total volume of manufacturing sales to its strongest quarterly rise in six years, Stats NZ said today.

The volume of total manufacturing sales rose 2.7 percent in the December 2019 quarter, after a flat September 2019 quarter, when adjusted for seasonal effects. It was led by a 7.9 percent lift in meat and dairy products manufacturing sales, following falls in the two previous quarters.

“This quarter’s rise is the largest increase in total manufacturing sales volumes in six years,” business statistics manager Geraldine Duoba said.

“It coincided with high exports seen for meat and dairy products late in 2019, before the outbreak of coronavirus in China.”

Overseas trade indexes (prices and volumes): December 2019 quarter (provisional) reported record-breaking levels in meat export prices as well as a sizeable increase in meat export volumes.

Sales volumes for eight of the 13 industries fell slightly in the December 2019 quarter. However, these falls were more than offset by the large rise in meat and dairy products, and a 12 percent increase in petroleum and coal products. The latter industry mainly reflects fuel processed in New Zealand by oil companies.

Manufacturing sales values rise 2.4 percent

In current prices, sales values for the December 2019 quarter rose 2.4 percent ($706 million) compared with the September 2019 quarter. Seasonally adjusted total manufacturing sales were worth $29.5 billion in the December quarter.

Meat and dairy product manufacturing sales values rose 7.4 percent ($649 million), to $9.5 billion in the December quarter.

Petroleum and coal product manufacturing was up 10 percent ($230 million), to $2.5 billion in the quarter.

With price effects included, the unadjusted value of manufacturing sales was $31.7 billion in the December quarter, up $1.2 billion from the December 2018 quarter.

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