Dairy and meat push exports up 4.5pc, dollar dips

New Zealand's trade surplus was $230 million in June, missing forecasts and pushing the kiwi dollar down by almost a third of a cent.

Merchandise exports rose 4.7 per cent to $3.97 billion last month compared to June 2010, while imports increased the same amount to $3.74 billion.

The New Zealand dollar fell to 86.17 US cents from 86.40 cents immediately before the release after the data fell short of the $4.2 billion of exports and $3.8 billion of imports forecast in a Reuters survey. The annual surplus was $1.02 billion.

Dairy products continued to dominate New Zealand's exports, with an 11 per cent increase in the value of milk powder, butter and cheese sales to $888 million in the month.

The value of casein and caseinates climbed 37 per cent to $77 million from June 2010, and helped lift sales into the US The volume of milk powder sold rose 6.6 per cent to 195,000 tonnes from the same month a year ago, and was 24,000 tonnes more than in May.

That comes as dairy prices have taken a knock in recent months, with the price for milk powder sold on Fonterra's online trading platform falling to a seven-month low in last week's auction.

Exports to Australia slipped 1.1 per cent to $857 million last month, but are up 6.8 per cent to an annual $10.31 billion, while Chinese sales rose 1.3 per cent to $383 million in June for an annual gain of 37 per cent to $5.64 billion.

A $62 million increase in petroleum imports drove gains on that side of the ledger as crude oil prices climbed. Australian imports fell 13 per cent to $592 million in June for an annual decline of 4.9 per cent to $7.4 billion, while Chinese imports rose 13 per cent to $597 million in the month for a 16 per cent annual increase to $7.12 billion.