WELLINGTON: Dairy farmers drove a 7-percent rise in New Zealand businesses’ total operating profits before tax last year, when dairy prices were at record high, the government statistics agency said Friday.
Dairy and the other agricultural industries led the overall profit growth to 62.6 billion NZ dollars (40.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, after a 12 percent fall in 2013, according to Statistics New Zealand.
“Over 70 percent of businesses made a profit in 2014, similar to the last year, although businesses were generally more profitable in 2014,” national accounts manager Gary Dunnet said in a statement.
Dairy farming had the largest increase in operating profit, up 1.9 billion NZ dollars (1.23 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014 after a fall of 400 million NZ dollars (259.12 million U.S. dollars) in 2013.
About 85 percent of dairy cattle farmers made a profit in 2014, compared with about 70 percent in 2013, on the back of record dairy (particularly milk powder) export values. For the year ended June 2015, prices for dairy product exports fell and export values dropped 22 percent.
