What Are New Zealand’s Main Exports and Imports?

Quick Overview

New Zealand’s trade is led by dairy, meat, fruit, wood products, wine, machinery, and high-value food exports. In 2025, goods exports reached NZ$80.7 billion, while imports reached NZ$82.9 billion, led by machinery, petroleum, vehicles, and electrical equipment.

What are New Zealand’s main exports and imports?

New Zealand is a high-income island economy with a strong export base in agriculture, food production, forestry, tourism-related services, and advanced manufacturing. Its location in the South Pacific makes international trade essential, especially for moving dairy, meat, fruit, wine, wood products, machinery, and consumer goods through seaports and airports.

In the year ended December 2025, New Zealand exported NZ$80.7 billion in goods and imported NZ$82.9 billion. Exports increased by 14.0% compared with the previous year, while imports increased by 5.4%. This narrowed the goods trade deficit to around NZ$2.2 billion.

Main Exports from New Zealand

1. Milk powder, butter, and cheese

Dairy remains New Zealand’s largest export category. In 2025, exports of milk powder, butter, and cheese reached NZ$24.3 billion, up 20.8% from the previous year.

This category includes whole milk powder, skim milk powder, butter, cheese, and related dairy ingredients. Major buyers include China, Australia, the United States, Southeast Asia, and other global food manufacturing markets.

2. Meat and edible offal

Meat is New Zealand’s second-largest goods export category. In 2025, meat and edible offal exports reached NZ$10.4 billion, up 20.9% year over year.

The country is especially known for beef, lamb, mutton, and other high-quality meat products. These exports are important to markets such as China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

3. Fruit

Fruit exports reached NZ$6.1 billion in 2025, rising 27.5% from the previous year. This category includes kiwifruit, apples, pears, cherries, and other fresh fruit.

Kiwifruit is one of New Zealand’s most internationally recognized export products and has been a major driver of horticulture export growth. Fruit exports are shipped mainly to Asia, Europe, North America, and Australia.

4. Logs, wood, and wood articles

Forestry products remain one of New Zealand’s major export categories. In 2025, exports of logs, wood, and wood articles reached NZ$5.1 billion, up 7.9% from 2024.

This category includes raw logs, sawn timber, wood pulp, processed wood products, and related materials. China is a major destination for New Zealand forestry exports, although demand can shift depending on construction and property market conditions.

5. Preparations of milk, cereals, flour, and starch

Prepared food and dairy-based products are also important exports. In 2025, this category reached NZ$2.9 billion, up 7.0%.

It includes infant formula, processed dairy ingredients, cereal preparations, starch-based food products, and other value-added food items. This category reflects New Zealand’s move beyond raw agricultural exports into higher-value food manufacturing.

6. Machinery, wine, seafood, and other export goods

New Zealand also exports mechanical machinery and equipment, wine, fish and seafood, aluminium, electrical machinery, medical and measuring equipment, wool, honey, pharmaceuticals, and specialty food products.

Wine exports reached NZ$2.2 billion in 2025, while fish, crustaceans, and molluscs reached NZ$2.0 billion. Precious metals, jewellery, and coins also grew strongly, reaching NZ$2.1 billion.

Main Imports into New Zealand

1. Mechanical machinery and equipment

Mechanical machinery and equipment was New Zealand’s largest import category in 2025, reaching NZ$12.0 billion, up 10.6% from the previous year.

This category includes industrial machinery, engines, pumps, computers, agricultural equipment, construction machinery, and parts used across manufacturing, farming, logistics, and infrastructure.

2. Petroleum and petroleum products

Petroleum and petroleum products remain one of New Zealand’s biggest import categories. In 2025, petroleum imports reached NZ$9.9 billion, down 5.0% from the previous year.

This category includes crude oil, refined petroleum, fuels, lubricants, and other energy products. Because New Zealand depends heavily on imported fuel, petroleum remains a major part of the country’s import bill.

3. Vehicles, parts, and accessories

Vehicle imports reached NZ$8.9 billion in 2025, up 3.0%. This category includes passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, trucks, automotive parts, and transport equipment.

New Zealand imports vehicles mainly from countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, and Europe. Vehicle demand is linked to household consumption, business investment, tourism, construction, and logistics activity.

4. Electrical machinery and equipment

Electrical machinery and equipment imports reached NZ$7.8 billion in 2025, up 9.1%.

This category includes telecommunications equipment, electrical components, appliances, batteries, electronic devices, and industrial electrical systems. These imports support both household demand and business operations.

5. Textiles, clothing, and footwear

Textiles and textile articles reached NZ$3.2 billion in imports in 2025. New Zealand also imports footwear, apparel, fabrics, household textiles, and consumer fashion products.

Most textile and apparel imports come from Asian manufacturing hubs, especially China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, and Southeast Asian countries.

6. Medical equipment, plastics, pharmaceuticals, steel, and food products

Other major imports include optical, medical, and measuring equipment, plastics, pharmaceuticals, food residues and animal feed, iron and steel, aircraft parts, furniture, fertilisers, beverages, chemicals, fruit, cereals, and packaged food products.

Medical and measuring equipment reached NZ$3.1 billion in 2025, plastics reached NZ$2.7 billion, and pharmaceuticals reached NZ$2.5 billion.

New Zealand’s main trade partners

China remains New Zealand’s largest export market, with exports reaching NZ$20.0 billion in 2025. Australia ranked second at NZ$10.1 billion, followed by the United States at NZ$9.4 billion, Japan at NZ$4.0 billion, South Korea at NZ$2.7 billion, and the United Kingdom at NZ$2.1 billion.

On the import side, China was also the largest supplier, with imports of NZ$18.5 billion in 2025. Australia followed at NZ$8.9 billion, the United States at NZ$8.6 billion, South Korea at NZ$5.7 billion, Japan at NZ$4.3 billion, and Singapore at NZ$4.1 billion.

Conclusion

New Zealand’s export economy is still strongly based on primary industries, especially dairy, meat, fruit, forestry, wine, seafood, and other food products. However, the country also exports machinery, medical equipment, aluminium, pharmaceuticals, and other higher-value goods.

Imports are led by machinery, petroleum, vehicles, electrical equipment, textiles, medical equipment, plastics, pharmaceuticals, steel, and food products. This reflects New Zealand’s need for imported energy, manufactured goods, vehicles, industrial inputs, and consumer products.

With exports rising faster than imports in 2025, New Zealand significantly narrowed its goods trade deficit. Dairy, meat, fruit, and other primary exports remain central to the country’s trade performance, while imports continue to support domestic consumption, transport, construction, farming, and industrial activity.