New Zealand's major exports, imports and markets
Why this page exists
- The standard names four concepts, and three of them are factual:
- major export goods and services
- major import goods and services
- major export and import markets
- Most papers contain a part like "Identify one of the top five countries New Zealand exports to" or "Apart from machinery, identify one of New Zealand's top five imported goods".
- This is a recall mark. There is no working to show and no model to draw. Learn the lists.
New Zealand's major export goods
| Export | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Dairy products | Milk powder, butter, cheese — consistently New Zealand's largest export earner |
| Meat | Beef, and sheep and goat meat |
| Forestry products | Logs, sawn timber, wood pulp |
| Fruit | Kiwifruit and apples, dominated by kiwifruit |
| Seafood | Fish, crustaceans and molluscs |
| Wine | Overwhelmingly Sauvignon Blanc |
New Zealand's major export services
- Tourism — spending in New Zealand by overseas visitors is an export of services, and one of the country's largest single foreign-exchange earners.
- International education — fees and living costs paid by international students.
- Business, technical and professional services — including software.
New Zealand's major import goods
| Import | Why New Zealand buys it |
|---|---|
| Vehicles, parts and accessories | Production scale New Zealand cannot match |
| Machinery and mechanical equipment | Specialised capital goods |
| Electrical machinery and electronics | Phones, computers, components |
| Mineral fuels | Crude oil and refined petroleum — New Zealand produces little |
| Textiles and clothing | Labour costs far lower elsewhere |
| Plastics and pharmaceuticals | Specialised chemical manufacturing |
New Zealand's major markets
Rankings are published by Stats NZ in Overseas Merchandise Trade, and have been stable for several years.
Top five export destinations
- China
- Australia
- United States
- Japan
- South Korea
Top five sources of imports
- China
- Australia
- United States
- South Korea
- Japan
- The same five countries appear in both lists — only the order of Japan and South Korea differs.
- The European Union and the United Kingdom are significant markets, but neither is in the top five, which is a distinction the exam has drawn on before.
Two facts worth knowing about the pattern
New Zealand's exports are concentrated.
- A large share of export earnings comes from a small number of primary products sold to a small number of markets.
- Concentration is a risk: a drought, a disease outbreak, or a downturn in one major market affects a large share of total export receipts at once. This is why diversification of both products and markets is a policy goal.
New Zealand exports primary products and imports manufactured goods.
- This shape makes New Zealand's export receipts sensitive to world commodity prices, which are volatile, while import prices for machinery and vehicles move more steadily.
Worked ExampleUsing the lists in an explanation
Choose one of New Zealand's top five sources of imports. Compare and contrast the impact of importing from that country on New Zealand producers and New Zealand consumers.
Step 1 — Choose a country and be specific about what comes from it
China is New Zealand's largest source of imports. New Zealand imports from China mainly electronics, machinery, clothing, textiles and plastic goods.
Step 2 — The impact on New Zealand consumers
Chinese production of these goods is far cheaper than New Zealand production would be, because of enormous scale and lower labour costs.
- New Zealand consumers can buy clothing, phones and household goods at a much lower price than if they had to be made here.
- Lower prices mean each dollar of income buys more — real incomes rise.
- Consumers also get more variety and choice than a market of 5 million could ever support domestically.
Consumers gain.
Step 3 — The impact on New Zealand producers
Here it depends which producers — and saying so is where the marks are.
Import-competing producers lose. A New Zealand clothing or plastics manufacturer now competes with an imported product it cannot match on price. It loses sales, cuts output, and may lay off workers or close.
Producers who use those imports gain. A New Zealand firm that buys imported machinery, components or packaging gets its inputs more cheaply, which lowers its costs of production and makes it more competitive, including in export markets.
Exporters gain indirectly. Trade runs both ways: the money New Zealand pays for imports gives that country the New Zealand dollars it needs to buy New Zealand exports.
Step 4 — Compare and contrast
The similarity: both consumers and input-using producers benefit from the same thing — the low price of imported goods.
The contrast: that same low price is precisely what harms import-competing producers. One price change creates the gain and the loss simultaneously; they are two sides of one movement, not separate effects.
The net position: the gains are spread widely and thinly across all consumers and most firms, while the losses are concentrated on a small number of import-competing industries and their workers. That is why the losers are far more visible and vocal than the winners, even when the total gain exceeds the total loss.