Single desk seller Zespri says the kiwifruit industry is looking like putting on a growth spurt after the Psa virus cut a swathe through the country's most productive areas from 2010 through to 2013.

The gap between what New Zealand earns from the rest of the world through trade and investment and what it pays widened in the June quarter as falling dairy exports started to weigh on the trade balance.

NZ's current account deficit rose by $1.4b in the past three months reflecting falling dairy prices and a large revision to investment flows into the country.

Former Fonterra boss Andrew Ferrier has been appointed chairman of New Zealand software developer Orion Health

Economists have cut their forecasts of economic growth in the current year, the latest quarterly survey conducted by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research has found.

The tourism industry wants to outperform Government forecasts to cement its position as one of New Zealand's biggest export sectors.

Russia's decision to play hardball with Western food producers could not have come at a worse time for the New Zealand dairy sector as the season starts to get into full swing.

Dairy product prices dropped to the lowest level since July 2012 in the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, led by a slump in rennet casein and butter milk powder.

New Zealand commodity prices fell for a sixth straight month in August, taking the index to a 17-month low.

New Zealand's terms of trade held at a 40-year high in the second quarter, as a high New Zealand dollar pushed down the price of imports, offsetting a decline in exports.

Fonterra is pinning its hopes on a tie-up with Chinese infant formula giant Beingmate as it pushes into China's lucrative baby milk market.

National is trying to position itself as the only party which will deliver major free trade agreements, saying that Labour's trade policies will be scuppered by any potential coalition partners.

Fonterra says it plans to spend about $1.17 bon taking a 20 per cent stake in China's Beingmate Baby & Child to boost its baby formula aspirations there.

Falling prices for dairy and forest product exports drove the trade balance into the red last month.

Peter Lyons writes: It is important that the team in charge of the economy is paddling in the right direction.

New Zealand meat companies abandoned efforts to consolidate and reduce surplus capacity last year because they lacked an agreed export strategy.

New Zealand wool prices have risen over the last few weeks and have performed strongly over the last year because of a wool shortage, ASB Bank said in the latest issue of its Commodities Weekly.

New Zealand wine has established itself as a major commodity after exports increased by 10 per cent in volume and value to a record $1.33 billion in the year to June

Log export trade helped offset a 10 per cent decline in Port of Tauranga's container business, allowing the company to report a record underlying profit of $78.3 million for the June year.

New Zealand wine exports increased by 10 per cent in both volume and value to a record $1.33 billion in the year to June.

The Port of Tauranga said its underlying group net profit rose by 1.3 per cent to a record $78.3m thanks to an increase in bulk cargo.

Dairy prices showed signs of stabilising overnight, with the GlobalDairyTrade main price index slipping by just 0.6 per cent.

Export demand for New Zealand craft beer is expected to triple over the next decade as Asian consumers develop a taste for boutique brews.

Export log prices have stabilised and are improving a little, despite conditions in the country's biggest market, China, remaining difficult.

New Zealand producers' input and output prices fell in the second quarter of this year as dairy prices declined.

Russia is scouring the world for produce ranging from Chilean salmon to Egyptian oranges to fill a big hole left by its ban on Western food imports.