Dairy still our top export, but tourism catches up

Tourism is surging, but dairy is still king when it comes to NZ exports. Photo / NZ Herald

Dairy remains New Zealand's top export earner, despite sharply lower product prices, Statistics NZ said.

The department said dairy earned the country $12.0 billion in the June 2015 year - down from $15.8b in the June 2014 year, followed closely by tourism.

Spending by international visitors to New Zealand - travel exports - increased $2.4b, reaching $11.7b in the June 2015 year.

"Dairy and travel are New Zealand's biggest export earners," international statistics senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.

"A fall in dairy exports to China, combined with the increase in expenditure by overseas visitors to New Zealand, has narrowed the gap between the two," she said.

New Zealand earned $2.3 billion more from exports than it spent on imports during the year - total exports of goods and services were $67.5 billion, while total imports were $65.1 billion.

Over one-third of total spending by international visitors in New Zealand was by visitors from Australia ($2.3 billion) and the European Union ($2.1 billion) in the June 2015 year. The $2.3 billion spent by visitors from Australia was the highest since the June 2010 year.

Cars from Japan ($1.9 billion) and the EU ($1.8 billion) remained the New Zealand's two largest imports by country.