Australia remained New Zealand’s top trading partner in the year ended March 2017, Stats NZ said today. Trans-Tasman travel was worth more than $2 billion each way, which means the trade ties with Australia were worth more than those with China.

“Higher travel services have pushed Australia into the top position for total trade, despite China being New Zealand’s top exports destination for goods such as dairy, logs, and meat,” international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said.

New Zealanders travelling to Australia spent $2.2 billion in the year ended March 2017, significantly more than the $257 million spent by New Zealanders travelling to China.

Most of this $2.2 billion worth of travel service imports was for personal travel, such as holidays or visiting friends and family. However, business travel was worth $537 million in the year.

Australians travelling to New Zealand (exports of travel services) spent $2.4 billion in the March 2017 year, mostly on personal travel ($1.9 billion).

New Zealand’s largest goods export to Australia was precious metals, jewellery, and coins ($625 million in the March 2017 year, mainly from gold mining), our 17th largest export commodity overall. This was followed by crude oil from the Taranaki oil fields, various foods, and machinery. Dairy products exported to Australia were New Zealand’s 23rd largest export commodity.

New Zealand’s total two-way trade with Australia was worth $24 billion, and we had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Australia.

Total exports of goods and services were $70.4 billion, while total imports were $67.4 billion. Overall, New Zealand’s trade with the rest of the world was a $3.0 billion surplus for the March 2017 year.

Goods and Services Trade by Country: Year ended March 2017 – for more data and analysis

| A StatisticsNZ release  ||  June 02, 2017   |||