KEY POINTS:
Rising global demand for dairy products has boosted prices for New Zealand commodities to record levels, but the rising dollar has largely offset the returns for exporters.
The ANZ World Commodity Price Index showed prices for New Zealand's key exports kept surging higher in April, with the index up 4.8 per cent over the month and 21 per cent above where they were the year before.
ANZ economist Steve Edwards said dairy was the largest part of the index, which saw its second strongest monthly increase in its 21-year history.
"The world price of dairy products increased 11.8 per cent in April, up 58 per cent from where they stood a year earlier."
Edwards put dairy's rise down to the fact that worldwide demand was still outpacing an increasing supply.
"That's also been affected by the drought in Australia, which has taken some of the product out of the marketplace."
Edwards said the increase in our dairy product price was mostly in powder, although butter and cheese were also starting to rise.
"But they have only shown about a quarter of the increase the powders have shown," he said.
Without the dairy element, the world index would have posted a very healthy 1.2 per cent increase for an annual growth of 5.9 per cent, he said.
Even so, New Zealand exporters were "pretty much getting the same returns as last month", with the rise of the kiwi, especially against the US dollar, negating the lift in prices.
The kiwi rose 6.5 per cent against the yen last month, 0.7 per cent against the Australian dollar and 5.2 per cent against the greenback, limiting the ANZ's NZ Dollar Commodity Price Index to a 0.1 per cent rise.
New Zealand lamb producers were faring worst, with prices in global terms dropping 0.3 per cent. There were only modest rates of increase in commodities such as wool, seafood, pelts, beef and kiwifruit.
The price of sawn timber rose 11.6 per cent, logs 5.6 per cent and aluminium, wood pulp and beef all between 1 and 2 per cent.
Edwards said: "The only price falls were measured for lamb and seafood, both dropping a modest 0.3 to 0.4 per cent in the month."
Killjoy Kiwi
* The Australian drought helped push the price of dairy up 11.8 per cent last month.
* That pushed the ANZ commodity index up 4.8 per cent for the month.
* But the currency's rise over April largely negated the returns for New Zealand exporters.
