New figures released by Statistics NZ show that due to Covid-19, dairy exports have overtaken travel as a revenue earner in New Zealand.
According to StatsNZ, dairy exports were up $396 million in the year to March 2020, which boosted New Zealand'strade surplus to $3.5 billion in the March 2020 year, up $1 billion on the surplus in the December 2019 year.
Fonterra's Mike Cronin said that although the co-op was "really, really pleased with those stats", he reckoned dairy exports were already performing well months before Covid-19 struck.
"It's not just the impact of the last few months, [if we] look back over a year at the stats through to March 2020, dairy exports [earned] $16.2 billion for New Zealand's economy" the Managing Director for Co-operative Affairs at Fonterra told The Country Early Edition's Rowena Duncum.
Although Covid-19 had definitely had an effect, Cronin said New Zealand's dairy industry was fortunate to have kept going during the lockdown.
"We know demand has held up for dairy through these last few months, so we're lucky to be an industry that's been able to do this, in a country that's been able to help the world get its nutrition".
"We should all be proud, and farmers especially proud of their dairy industry, working through that lockdown".
Dairy farmers' efforts not only helped the economy, but also supported local business, said Cronin.
"As we look over the last 12 months, our farmers are getting 11 billion dollars into the New Zealand economy through the milk price, and they spend some of that in their rural communities too".
Also in today's interview: Cronin took a look at the latest GDT result and talked about supply and demand locally and internationally.
