WELLINGTON: A lower New Zealand dollar has helped to push up the value of meat exports for the first nine months of the current season.
Beef and Lamb New Zealand said the New Zealand dollar dropped by 10 percent against its US counterpart in that time.
That, along with strong demand for beef in the US and China, pushed up the value of beef and veal exports by 26 percent a tonne and export returns reached a record high of $2.53 billion.
Despite a lower tonnage of lamb shipped, the value rose by almost 4 percent to an average of more than $8500 a tonne.
But the total value of mutton exports fell by 16 percent, and exports were down by a similar percentage, due to falling demand from the biggest market, China,
