China overtook Australia as our top export destination for the first time in the March 2013 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today.
The strong and continuing lift in exports to China helped New Zealand to a higher-than-expected overseas merchandise trade surplus of NZ$718 million (16% of exports) in March. The monthly figures are not seasonally-adjusted, while the quarterly figures are.
The March surplus compares with an average deficit of NZ$354 million (8.3%) of exports over the previous five March months.
For the quarter, there was a seasonally adjusted trade surplus of NZ$52 million, equivalent to 0.4% of exports. This follows a deficit of NZ$59 million in the December 2012 quarter.
During the quarter, goods exported to China were valued at NZ$2.3 billion. That is up NZ$554 million, or 32% compared with the March quarter a year ago. The figures by country are not seasonally adjusted.
In just the month of March alone, exports to China showed the largest increase, up NZ$278 million or 47%. This was led by meat and edible offal, up NZ$91 million 247%, whole milk powder, up NZ$78 million (66%), and pine logs, up $74 million (102%).
In the March quarter exports to Australia - now our second-largest export market - were valued at NZ$2.2 billion.
Statistics New Zealand said that monthly exports to China overhauled those going to Australia for the first time in January this year and had continued to surpass the level of exports to Australia for every month of the quarter.
"Twenty percent of goods exported from New Zealand went to China in the March 2013 quarter," industry and labour statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver said. "This compares with 15% in the same quarter last year."
The seasonally adjusted value of exported goods rose 0.8% in the March 2013 quarter to NZ$11.6 billion. This follows a fall of 2.9% in the December 2012 quarter.
Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the increase in the March 2013 quarter – values were up 3.5% (NZ$96 million), and quantities were up 3.6%.
The seasonally adjusted value of imported goods decreased 0.2% in the March 2013 quarter to NZ$11.5 billion, following a 1.6% fall in the December 2012 quarter.
For the March 2013 month, export values increased NZ$213 million (5.1%) to NZ$4.4 billion compared with the same month in 2012, while imports decreased NZ$319 million (7.9%) to NZ$3.7 billion.
Economists said the strong increase in meat export volumes over the month were due to the drought, as farmers brought forward livestock slaughter in the face of increasingly dry conditions.
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Shanghai Pengxin had experienced "significantly higher costs and significantly lower revenues" than expected.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/8605184/Buyer-of-Crafar-f…
Kelly said four "head office" staff were in place managing the farms but the SOE would not fully take over as 50:50 sharemilker until the start of the 2013-14 dairy season on June 1.
This meant Pengxin was getting the full milk payout cheque for the farms and that current sharemilkers had been "pretty disadvantaged" this dairy season.
did we say happy days....
Henry, I have a contact working on one of the Crafar farms, they said that they pushed and pushed the poor old cows and milked right to the end this season, through one of the worst droughs on record, they hated it.
They have left, they felt the management was dollar focused and that this next seasons production is going to suffer big-time.
Yeah well, it's hardly surprising really, they did pay over the odds money for these farms, plus agreed to all the conditions.
If they have been milking off more condition from those cows than some sorry beasts I've seen in my travels, then they deserve the same punishment as Crafar.
I wouldn't mind betting as they find the further down the track they go, that two into one don't go that they will demand slackening of some of those conditions and they will be looking to buy up some stressed farms as well I imagine, Crafar farms, were just the beginning.
Oh well, if Bernard has his way should China and Japan do more than just rattle sabres at each other, we'll be fighting for the red army anyway. You up for that, folks?
Fonterra is revamping its struggling Australian business, slashing the number of brands to rein in losses and hinting at more factory closures.
http://www.dairynewsaustralia.com.au/trending/fonterra-slashes-australi…
Fonterra has eight processing plants in Australia; it is closing a 100-year-old plant in Cororooke, Victoria.
Fonterra is claiming $1.2m in costs from Tamar after it was forced to recall a Nestle yoghurt product, Calci-yum, from supermarket shelves because of a faulty seal.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/troubled-dairy-firm-…
Calci-yum is manufactured under contract by Tamar for Fonterra.
Coles, Woolworths and Aldi are also understood to be nervous about how sustainable the business is after such a rapid period of growth. In the past year, Tamar won a five-year home-brand contract from Coles which immediately landed it in production and financial difficulties.
Buying GrainCorp, the only major publicly traded grain merchant left in Australia after the country deregulated its wheat-export system, would give ADM control of seven of the eight ports that ship grain in bulk from the nation’s east coast as well as a substantial malt producer. ADM made an initial bid last year, building its stake to 19.9 percent.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-25/graincorp-accepts-archer-danie…
These global ag-coys, source supply from lowest cost producing loacation. Something not to be forgotten.
Note the requirement for China authority approval...
As our traditional markets are in a state of decline, we risk becoming a dependency of China, or has that already happened?
Tausch (2003), based on works of Amin from 1973 to 1997, lists the following main characteristics of periphery capitalism:
- Regression in both agriculture and small scale industry characterizes the period after the onslaught of foreign domination and colonialism
- Unequal international specialization of the periphery leads to the concentration of activities in export oriented agriculture and or mining. Some industrialization of the periphery is possible under the condition of low wages, which, together with rising productivity, determine that unequal exchange sets in (double factorial terms of trade < 1.0; see Raffer, 1987)
- These structures determine in the long run a rapidly growing tertiary sector with hidden unemployment and the rising importance of rent in the overall social and economic system
- Chronic current account balance deficits, re-exported profits of foreign investments, and deficient business cycles at the periphery that provide important markets for the centers during world economic upswings
- Structural imbalances in the political and social relationships, inter alia a strong 'compradore' element and the rising importance of state capitalism and an indebted state class (Tausch 2003)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_theory#CITEREFTausch2003
Interesting..BNZ confidence survey out this morning is title "Everything is Okay" reading it is polar opposite to your post..go figure. :-)
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