Impact of Coronavirus on International Trade of New Zealand

Ahnaf Chowdhury Niloy1

1
Student, East West University

Abstract

New Zealand is extraordinarily reliant on worldwide exchange. New

Zealand's economy has generally been founded on an establishment of fares
from its effective agrarian framework: dairy items, meat, woods items, and
products of the soil. New Zealand imports predominantly vehicles, hardware
and gear, oil, gadgets, plastics and airplane. Its fundamental exchanging
accomplices are: China, Australia, the US, Japan and South Korea. New
Zealand comprises of two significant land territories - North and South Island
and around 600 littler islands. As a developed nation, New Zealand positions
exceptionally in worldwide examinations of national execution, for example,
personal satisfaction, training, and security of common freedoms,
government straightforwardness, and financial opportunity. New Zealand
experienced major monetary changes during the 1980s, which changed it
from a protectionist to a changed international commerce economy. The
administration area rules the national economy, trailed by the mechanical
segment, and farming; worldwide the travel industry is a huge wellspring of
income. As indicated by government information, New Zealand's population
is 5,011,530. In this paper, we will discuss about the pre and post situation of
international trade of New Zealand in the coronavirus outbreak. The paper is
prepared for academic purpose only and the summary of data is shown in
several graphical manner. The data is collected through secondary sources,
so the paper is mostly based upon secondary data.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Net Export, Trade, Recovery.

International Trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international
borders or territories (Dictionary.com, 2020). There are three types of International trade-
Export, Import and Entrepot trade. Entrepot Trade is a combination of export and import trade
and is also known as Re-export. International trade mainly occurs in two ways – Merchandise
import/export and Service import export.

Coronavirus Outbreak and Impact in International Trade of NZ

Though many people consider New Zealand to be an agro based economy, in reality
New Zealand’s major earning comes from Service Exports. Tourism is New Zealand’s biggest
export industry, contributing 20.4% of total exports that generates a direct annual contribution
to GDP of $16.2 billion, or 5.8%, and a further indirect contribution of $11.2 billion, another
4% of New Zealand’s total GDP and 229,566 people are directly, another 163,713 indirectly
employed in tourism in New Zealand – 14.4% of the total number of people employed (TIA,
2019).
Over the years, New Zealand’s
agricultural dependancy dropped. From 1975
to 2017, Its agricultural dependancy on GDP
dropped from 12% to less than 5%, and started
rising after 2017. Where, its service value rose
year after year from 53% to nearly 66% before
a gradual drop after 2017. Detailed data is
attached in (Appendix II).

Due to the coronavirus outbreak New

Zealand also faced trade issues. For the week
ended 13 May 2020 compared with the
equivalent week in 2019 (Weir, 2020):

 total exports to all countries were down

9.7 percent ($123 million), from $1.27 billion
to $1.15 billion
 total imports from all countries were up
13 percent ($151 million), from $1.13 billion
to $1.28 billion
 exports to China were down 13 percent
($40 million), from $319 million to $279
million.
Figure 1: Value Added (% of GDP), NZ. Retrieved
 imports from China were down 4.2
from: data.worldbank.org
percent ($10 million), from $239 million to
$229 million.

1
 Due to coronavirus, New Zealand had to cut jobs as well. But the government has
declared $50 billion plan to save 140,000 jobs in 19 levels (Graham-McLay, 2020). There are
a lot of jobs that are related to foreign trade. The government’s expenditure plan in-

 $1.6 billion for trades and apprenticeships training.

 $400m to support tourism, New Zealand’s largest export industry.

New Zealand’s PM also tried to rise the tourism sector after the coronavirus pandemic
again, as New Zealand is one of those countries that declared Covid-19 free at a very early
point. This was good from one side, that they had controlled the pandemic but their foreign
trade was affected severely as NZ’s major export is tourism. So they had to solely rely on
agriculture severely. In order to boost the tourism sector again, NZ’s Prime Minister J. Ardern
has urged New Zealanders to travel at home and is considering more holidays to get people
out, but operators say they won’t make up for the missing foreigners who bring about half of
the industry’s NZ$16.1 billion (US$10.34 billion) annual income (Jamal, 2020). Ardern
announced a new NZ$85 million ($55 million) infrastructure package for Queenstown, part of
NZ$400 million allocated for affected tourism businesses in the budget unveiled in May.
Around 79% of the 1619 businesses who responded to the survey made changes to their
operations to survive, while nearly a fifth were at “high risk of ceasing operation”. About 26%
“sharply” cut capacity, and 27% suspended their operations so they do not have to absolutely
close their businesses (Guha, 2020).

One of New Zealand’s major agro based export goes to China. So due to the closed
border, export to China was severly affected. But over the past few weeks, exporters have
reported a renewed appetite for a wide variety of products ranging from rock lobsters to
kiwifruit and honey and hopes are high that New Zealand's reputation for food quality and
safety will help the economy recover. One of the first casualties of the COVID-19 crisis was
the NZ$320 million-dollar rock lobster industry which was effectively shut down following
China's decision to stop Chinese New Year celebrations in late January (Poland, 2020). New
Zealand entered recession for the first time in almost a decade as the coronavirus pandemic led
to the nation’s biggest quarterly contraction in 29 years. Gross domestic product fell 1.6% in
the first quarter from the fourth, Statistics New Zealand said Thursday in Wellington. That’s
the largest decline since 1991 and more than the 1% expected by economists. From a year
earlier, the economy shrank 0.2% - the first annual contraction since 2009 (Sarkar, 2020).

According to Tradingeconomics, abroad guest appearances in New Zealand dropped

by 210,000 or 98.4 percent year-on-year to 3,521 in June of 2020, in the wake of plunging 99
percent in the earlier month. It was the most minimal print for a May month since 1959, in the
midst of outskirt limitations due to the Covid pandemic. Guests declined from Australia (- 90
percent), China (- 92.9 percent), the UK (- 94.7 percent ), and the US (- 84.3 percent).
Appearances for the year finished June of 2020 were 2.92 million, down 970,676 from the year
finished June of 2019 (Trading Economics, 2020). July is normally peak travel season in New

2
Zealand but scheduled flights are down 40 percent compared to the same month last year and
even many of those are being canceled, according to figures from travel analytics firm Cirium
(The Japan Times, 2020).

Figure 2: New Zealand Tourist Arrivals 1921-2020 Data. Retrieved from:

https://tradingeconomics.com

New Zealand's exchange surplus extended pointedly to NZD 1267 million in April of
2020 from NZD 361 million in the very month of the earlier year. It was the biggest exchange
surplus on record, as imports plunge 22 percent longer than a year sooner to NZD 4.0 billion,
the second most honed fall since the arrangement beggan in 1960, in the midst of the COVID-
19 level 4 lockdown. The biggest supporter of the fall in imports was oil and items (- 58
percent), specifically unrefined petroleum (- 77 percent). Fares dropped 4 percent to NZD 5.3
billion, for the most part because of log as tasks were suspended during the month. New
Zealand's exchange surplus extended strongly to NZD 1253 million in May of 2020 from NZD
175 million in the very month of the earlier year. Imports plunged 25.6 percent longer than a
year sooner to NZD 4.1 billion, in the midst of the COVID-19 emergency. Then, sends out
dropped 6.1 percent to NZD 5.5 billion, with llogs (- 12.3 percent) as the significant supporter
of the fall. The reaction to the pandemic was obvious in the information, as NZD 90 million
worth of face veils were imported (from NZD 64 million in April), while fares of breath
hardware expanded by NZD 49 million or 112% (Trading Economics, 2020).

3
 Figure 3: New Zealand Balance of Trade1951-2020 Data. Retrieved from:
https://tradingeconomics.com

Conclusion
What we understand from studying the news and visualizing the data is that,
coronavirus had affected the overall trade of New Zealand severely, especially the tourism
industry that generates most of their foreign exports. New Zealand though managed to get a
positive figure in terms of balance of trade, but it was solely dependent on the rich agricultural
exports of dairy products. From the data, we can conclude that it will be tougher for New
Zealand if tourism stays closed for longer period as it is the major export driver, thus New
Zealand needs to take alternative measures to drive their exports.

4
 Sarkar, K. (2020, June 18). New Zealand enters first
Works Cited recession since 2010 as coronavirus bites.
Retrieved from Hindustan Times:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-
Dictionary.com. (2020). trade. Retrieved from
news/new-zealand-enters-first-recession-
Dicktionary.com:
since-2010-as-coronavirus-bites/story-
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/trad
9CNEgNvOmBS25CTlM1zsTK.html?fbclid=
e
IwAR1lpGm2IwXZEVx9hSRyQVlJ4p5fWBj9
Graham-McLay, C. (2020, May 14). New Zealand vsir4ZwlfZyCMAlqK6Pg4IpnZUE
budget: Robertson lays out $50bn plan to
The Japan Times. (2020, June 26). With
return jobs to pre-Covid-19 levels.
coronavirus under control, Vietnam and
Retrieved from The Guardian:
New Zealand see different travel trends.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/202
Retrieved from The Japan Times:
0/may/14/new-zealand-budget-
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/202
robertson-lays-out-50bn-plan-to-return-
0/06/26/asia-pacific/vietnam-new-
jobs-to-pre-covid-19-
zealand-travel-
levels?fbclid=IwAR1CqSwp4b1DMzctglNo
covid19/?fbclid=IwAR1xdieQ_3d4YzvKTO
OAxy8GVZY4NeXRYbGYZo-
SEVsOiV7GxcZL_aBNwEk1xQabDGz7UqFk
7OqoOlDa8lgO1XfDx4
tMIsid8k#.Xzi1gOgzbIU
Guha, A. (2020, May 18). COVID-19 forces 37% of
TIA. (2019, September). Quick Facts & Figures.
New Zealand’s tourism businesses to cut
Retrieved from Tourism Industry
staff, 18% at high risk of closing, survey
Aotearoa : https://tia.org.nz/about-the-
shows. Retrieved from Travel Andy News:
industry/quick-facts-and-
https://travelandynews.com/covid-19-
figures/#:~:text=Tourism%20is%20New%
forces-37-of-new-zealand-tourism-
20Zealand's%20biggest,of%20New%20Ze
businesses-to-cut-staff-18-at-high-risk-of-
aland's%20total%20GDP.
closing-survey-
shows/?fbclid=IwAR0Dzp5gcK1EapWT4N Trading Economics. (2020, July). New Zealand
0v8IF- Balance of Trade1951-2020 Data.
UT1NAU2X2vPGg2EI7qOT7n1F_5TCGneG Retrieved from Trading Economics:
peU https://tradingeconomics.com/new-
zealand/balance-of-trade
Jamal, A. (2020, June 26). ovid-19: New Zealand
tourism on a slippery slope as ski season Trading Economics. (2020, July). New Zealand
kicks off amid coronavirus pandemic. Tourist Arrivals 1921-2020 Data.
Retrieved from Hindustan Times: Retrieved from Trading Economics:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/travel/ https://tradingeconomics.com/new-
covid-19-new-zealand-tourism-on-a- zealand/tourist-arrivals
slippery-slope-as-ski-season-kicks-off-
amid-coronavirus-pandemic/story- Weir, J. (2020, May 20). New Zealand trade after
k1fylWA7u26yusoDMXvBjO.html?fbclid=I the COVID-19 outbreak – 20 May update.
wAR30CAc4AuFfg0SoUM- Retrieved from Stats NZ:
gwm6ZHEw__TMW- https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/new-
ZNJ4a2jLVwXoSBUf3quze8BdU8 zealand-trade-after-the-covid-19-
outbreak-20-may-update
Poland, O. (2020, May 7). New Zealand resumes
exports to China. Retrieved from CGTN:
https://meet.google.com/ivh-wjyy-
ihs?fbclid=IwAR2eLh-
Z63qVK4lhV7kkPARRCrq6fNS3NdFlqKsV2
Dh3KLUjKRkt7B8i7Pc

i
Appendix I
With coronavirus under
control, Vietnam and New
Zealand see different travel
trends, The Japan Times
LONDON/HANOI – Laura Douglas’ tourism
start-up, a farm surrounded by snow-tipped
mountains in southern New Zealand, was
attracting hundreds of mostly foreign visitors a
month until the coronavirus pandemic brought
it to a sudden halt in March.
“It’s like I’ve been mourning the loss of my
business,” Douglas, 33, said in a phone
interview with Reuters, adding she had to take
on a second job as a vet to pay the bills during
a strict lockdown that included sealing the
country’s borders.
The rebound for New Zealanders who are
reliant on tourism is expected to be slow, in
marked contrast to how the tourism sector is
faring in Vietnam, another nation that was
hailed as a success story in Asia for containing
the coronavirus. Both countries have emerged
from lockdown virtually virus-free, lifting all
restrictions except those on international travel.
While New Zealand’s tourism sector is
struggling pending arrivals from abroad,
Vietnam’s has rebounded, according to travel
data and industry members. This is thanks to
how much domestic tourism has filled the gap,
reflecting in part how badly the coronavirus hit
the two economies. While New Zealand’s
economy is expected to contract by as much as
20 percent in the first half of the year, according
to the central bank, Vietnam has kept its yearly
growth target above 5 percent . July is normally
peak travel season in New Zealand but
scheduled flights are down 40 percent
compared to the same month last year and even
many of those are being canceled, according to
figures from travel analytics firm Cirium.
Weekly demand for Airbnb and Vrbo
properties through July are down 55 percent
from last year and a recovery is unlikely until
later this year, according to forward-looking
bookings from AirDNA. Across the ocean in
Vietnam, the story is very different. In July,
more than 26,000 flights are expected to
transport 5 million people, increases of 16
percent and 24 percent from last year Nguyen
Thi Thuy Anh, owner of a travel agency called
Minh Viet Booking, says he is handling a surge
in bookings as businesses slash prices to attract
local travelers.
“Many people who couldn’t afford five-star
services before are taking advantage of the
programs to experience the services,” he said,
referring to central and provincial government
efforts to boost mass domestic tourism.
In a country with poor rail and road
infrastructure, air travel is already a popular
mode of transport, and even more so now, with
airlines adding routes and offering tickets for as
low as 69,000 Vietnamese dong ($3.00). A
Reuters analysis of flight data from
FlightRadar24 shows that Ho Chi Minh and
Hanoi, along with Phu Quoc island and Cam
Rahn bay — both tourist hotspots — were top
destinations through mid-June after lockdowns
were lifted in late April. In New Zealand, Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern is asking people to
“experience your own backyard”. She is urging
employers to consider four-day work weeks
and has said the government is actively
considering more public holidays this year so
people can travel. On Friday, Ardern is
launching the country’s ski season in the tourist
destination of Queenstown, hoping that will
give another boost to domestic travel.
Some New Zealanders appear to be heeding her
encouragement and taking weekend road trips.
Demand for hotels and short-term rentals, while
depressed overall, still ticks up over the
weekends according to STR, an analytics firm
that looks specifically at the hotel industry.
But tourism business owners say a pot of 400
million New Zealand dollars ($257 million) set
aside by the government to subsidize wages and
other costs for the industry will not be enough
to tide it over while foreign tourists are still
barred. Foreigners account for around half the
NZ$16.1 billion ($10.34 billion) that tourism
ii
contributes to GDP in New Zealand, a hole
economist Peter Clough says will be difficult to
plug with just domestic travelers.
“Whatever we do, we’re not going to fill that
hole just by drumming up domestic travel or the
Trans-Tasman bubble,” he said, referring to a
proposal that was touted last month to allow
movement between Australia and New
Zealand. For Douglas, the downturn means
digging deep in her own pockets and pivoting
as much as possible to attract local travel to her
15,000-hectare (37,000-acre) farm.
“The farming mentality is that you’re not
always going to have good seasons,” she said.
“Right now, Kiwis are going to be the best gift
for us and I’m hoping they will come with their
gumboots on.”
New Zealand and Cook
Islands work on 'travel bridge'
to beat tourism slump, The
Guardian
New Zealand’s first travel bubble could be on
its way after the Cook Islands’ deputy prime
minister said his country was ready to welcome
tourist flights as early as next week.
The Cook Islands is a self-governing
archipelago in the Pacific, in “free association”
with New Zealand. It has recorded no cases of
coronavirus, while New Zealand has in effect
eliminated the disease; having recorded no
community spread for more than 70 days,
meaning any active cases have been limited to
arrivals in quarantine. The Cook Islands is a
favourite holiday destination for New
Zealanders, and more than 80,000 Cook
Islanders live permanently in New Zealand.
Mark Brown, the deputy prime minister of the
Cook Islands, told the AM Show that talks
between the two countries to open a quarantine-
free travel bubble were in the final stages, and
flights could begin as early as next week.
Jacinda Ardern and Cook Islands prime
minister Henry Puna spoke on the phone on
Monday night, Brown said, and his country was
desperate for tourists to return. Tourism is the
main driver of the economy. “We are Covid-19
free ... New Zealand is in level 1 with no
community transmission. So we are quite happy
to see the establishment of a new travel bridge,”
Brown said, saying his country was also in
advanced talks with Air New Zealand.
Dedicated “travel gates” between the Cook
Islands and Auckland airport would be
established, Brown said, and New Zealand
citizens who had been in the country for 30 days
or more would be eligible to visit the Cooks.
“We’ve been quite persistent ... by necessity for
us,” Brown said. “Tourism is a huge part of our
economy – up to 70% – we’ve got 45% of our
workforce that is on the wage subsidy with no
other support which is going to end by
September.” The Pacific region has had very
low numbers of Covid-19 infections – a little
over 300 cases to date – due to its geographic
isolation and strict enforcement of border
closures. But in a part of the world that is
financially dependent on tourism and that
imports much of its food, fuel and other vital
supplies, travel lockdowns have hit Pacific
economies especially hard. Fiji Airways has
laid off 775 employees – more than half its
workforce – and in Vanuatu, 70% of tourism
workers have lost their jobs. A recent survey of
Cook Islands businesses forecast a 90% drop in
revenue from the economic impact of
coronavirus travel restrictions. In a
statement,Air New Zealand said: “Discussions
between the New Zealand and Cook Island
governments on establishing a travel bubble
have been going well.” A Trans-Tasman bubble
with Australia has been the most hotly
anticipated for Kiwis, but since cases have
begun to climb in Victoria and New South
Wales, both Ardern and Australian prime
minister Scott Morrison have poured cold water
on it being up and running “any time soon”. The
Cook Islands bubble may also be further off
than Brown has suggested, with Ardern saying
in a statement that her priority remained the
safety of Kiwis, and keeping the Pacific
protected. “The prime minister spoke to the
Cook Islands prime minister yesterday to
convey that she has asked officials to work on
timelines for reopening with realm countries,”
a spokesman for Ardern said. “There are no set
iii
dates yet, and any speculation at this stage weaker labor market and job security concerns
would be very premature …No one wishes to will likely result in many households becoming
be responsible for Covid entering into the more cautious about spending over the coming
Pacific.” The secretary general of the Pacific year.”
Islands Forum, Dame Meg Taylor,said in May
that any reopening would “take time” and that The New Zealand dollar was little changed after
the GDP report. It bought 64.50 U.S. cents at
a government’s priority must be “that people
stay healthy”. “We just don’t have strong health 11:24 a.m. in Wellington. The initial impact of
the Covid-19 outbreak began in early February
systems, health services and health
with a travel ban imposed on arrivals from
infrastructure,” she said. Travel is beginning to
China and exporters facing difficulties in their
resume across the Pacific, but so far has largely
supply chains. Tourism started to experience
been limited to the repatriation of citizens or
the pain as border measures were stepped up
travel between communities with existing close
ties. after the first case of Covid-19 was discovered
on Feb. 28. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
eventually took the unprecedented step of
closing the border to all foreigners on March
New Zealand enters first 19. Only in the final week of the quarter, on
recession since 2010 as March 25, was the nation placed into lockdown,
requiring almost all retailers other than
coronavirus bites, Hindustan Times supermarkets to close and shutting down
building sites and most factories. Bank
New Zealand entered recession for the first time
economists predict the economy will contract
in almost a decade as the coronavirus pandemic
by as much as 19% in the second quarter,
led to the nation’s biggest quarterly contraction
confirming New Zealand’s first recession since
in 29 years.
the second half of 2010. Some have scaled back
Gross domestic product fell 1.6% in the first the severity of the expected slump after the
quarter from the fourth, Statistics New Zealand country succeeded in eliminating the virus and
said Thursday in Wellington. That’s the largest came out of lockdown earlier than anticipated,
decline since 1991 and more than the 1% partially reviving consumer confidence and
expected by economists. From a year earlier, giving a fillip to retail spending. The first-
the economy shrank 0.2% -- the first annual quarter contraction was driven by service
contraction since 2009. industries, particularly hospitality as
international travel stopped, the statistics
New Zealand is bracing for a severe contraction agency said.
in the three months through June after it
responded to the pandemic by closing its border
and imposing a strict nationwide lockdown that
stayed in place until mid-May. The government
has pledged NZ$62 billion ($40 billion) of
fiscal support to help revive domestic demand
and protect jobs, while the central bank has
slashed interest rates and embarked on
quantitative easing to drive down borrowing
costs.
“We are expecting the bulk of the economic
impact to hit in the second quarter,” said Jane
Turner, senior economist at ASB Bank in
Auckland, who tips a 17% contraction. “The
labor market is set to deteriorate markedly with
unemployment set to rise above 8%. The

iv
COVID-19 forces 37% of New
Zealand’s tourism businesses
to cut staff, 18% at high risk of
closing, survey shows, Travel Andy
News
Tourism businesses across New Zealand have
suffered huge losses as an aftermath of COVID-
19, and are devising new ways to stay afloat,
data from an industry survey organised by
Tourism New Zealand showed.
Around 79% of the 1619 businesses who
responded to the survey made changes to their
operations to survive, while nearly a fifth were
at “high risk of ceasing operation”. About 26%
“sharply” cut capacity, and 27% suspended
their operations so they do not have to
absolutely close their businesses.
Though respondents represented various
industry sizes, 88% of them were either small
businesses or individual traders. Nearly half of
these respondents came from accommodation-
related businesses, with others from visitor
activities and services, and transport. The data
also revealed that across the country Kiwis
employed in the sector had lost jobs – 37% of
the businesses had reduced staff. With all the
businesses surveyed saying they had to take
tough calls in order to stay alive, 31% of those
surveyed said they were freezing assets and
operations, 9% had sold their assets while 61%
were exploring other means to cut costs.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Executive Stephen
England-Hall said there was a need for “urgent
action and collaboration across the sector”.
“The results show that the sector have made
significant changes to their operations to try and
keep their business alive since the Covid-19
outbreak that and many are orientated to
welcome Kiwi tourism. The industry has been
focused on survival, it’s now time to work
towards how we can thrive again and what is
required to get there,” he said. “While there are
tough roads ahead, I’m confident that there will
be a viable and productive visitor economy for
New Zealand. It’s vital that we continue to
support those who need it, so that when activity
does resume, there is a sector to return to,”
England-Hall added. Although close to 90% of
the respondents said they were confident they
could adapt their product to appeal to the
domestic market, 90% have taken some form of
support from the government – 87% took the
wage subsidy in April, 18% took tax relief and
11% are accessing business financing.
Predictions looked dim as business owners
forecast 52% layoffs. Operators forecast almost
50% downsizings in in regional New Zealand.
Around 81% of those reviewed said they will
resume operations when demand picks up, 64%
said they will slowly return to levels of
operation to satisfy demand, 26% will start over
with a new business model while 3% of the
respondents said they think they will not be able
to reopen their business. New Zealand recently
started lifting its lockdown measures in phases,
with travel allowed within the country, reports
said. According to data from Johns Hopkins
University, New Zealand has reported 1,499
cases including 21 deaths.
New Zealand resumes exports
to China, CGTN
New Zealand exporters are breathing a sigh of
relief as demand from China for imported food
picks up in the wake of the COVID-19
pandemic. Over the past few weeks, exporters
have reported a renewed appetite for a wide
variety of products ranging from rock lobsters
to kiwifruit and honey and hopes are high that
New Zealand's reputation for food quality and
safety will help the economy recover.
"China is absolutely critical to New Zealand's
economic wellbeing," says New Zealand China
Council chief executive Rachel Maidment.
Despite the closing of borders in February, total
exports to China fell by just 5.8 percent in
March but she says that "really high demand for
good quality, healthy, New Zealand products
has assisted with the export figures." One of the
first casualties of the COVID-19 crisis was the
NZ$320 million-dollar rock lobster industry
which was effectively shut down following
China's decision to stop Chinese New Year
v
celebrations in late January. Canceled export
orders led to some lobsters being returned to the
sea, but the delicacy was back on the menu for
the Labor Day holiday and the chairman of
Lobster Exporters of New Zealand, Andrew
Harvey, says that "consumers are obviously
back in restaurants and looking for premium
seafood, and we are very fortunate to have
caught a wild lobster species which is
recognized in China as the best in the world."

Beekeepers are also celebrating a strong

demand for manuka honey, which is well
known for its anti-bacterial qualities. High-
grade manuka honey can fetch up to 400 New
Zealand dollars a kilo, and exporters say orders
from China have more than doubled in recent
weeks as consumers search for products that
could help boost immunity. New Zealand's
reputation as a world leader in food safety will
be a key factor in future success, and the
Manuka Honey Appellation Society has
applied for a certification trademark in China to
prove that their product is high quality - and
trustworthy. "The demand for manuka honey
coming out of China is strong", says chief
executive John Rawcliffe, "and we've got to get
that simple message to the consumer in China
that this is manuka and the rating system has a
real value." A bumper kiwifruit harvest and
higher prices for milk powder and meat have
also helped to boost export returns, but other
parts of the economy haven't fared so well.
Forestry was hit hard by the cancellation of raw
log exports to China in February, and the
closing of borders to foreign nationals has
brought the multi-billion-dollar international
tourism and education sectors to a grinding halt.
Nevertheless, Rachel Maidment says there are
some promising opportunities on the horizon,
like a collaboration with China in the creative
sector. "Content creation hasn't been impacted
by COVID-19, and that's an area that we'd
really like to see grow and develop in the
future."

vi
Appendix II 2009 6.062552 63.42774
2010 5.006539 64.35623
Data of Agriculture and Service Value 2011 5.751433 65.50221
Added (% of GDP), World Bank. 2012 6.583351 64.36852
2013 6.276078 64.32804
2014 5.516227 65.01885
Year Agriculture Service
Value Value 2015 7.035953 64.33252
Added % Added 2016 4.786167 65.40021
of GDP (% of 2017 4.486333 65.79824
GDP) 2018 5.569774 65.55321
1975 11.90088 52.66819 2019 5.814862 65.18346
1976 8.239367 54.0455
1977 9.922726 54.46084
1978 10.78488 52.64967
1979 9.454708 53.76207
1980 8.956571 54.81105
1981 11.41767 52.78315
1982 9.960143 54.33862
1983 8.520867 54.1087
1984 7.179456 54.6356
1985 7.434643 55.22182
1986 8.311595 54.22759
1987 7.303778 57.68617
1988 5.949649 58.77867
1989 6.095542 58.32311
1990 6.510116 59.83718
1991 6.768447 58.58621
1992 5.988677 60.33602
1993 6.888517 60.06555
1994 6.717304 60.25148
1995 7.326042 59.65356
1996 6.507726 59.56954
1997 6.450808 60.43165
1998 6.437127 61.04193
1999 6.077374 61.78028
2000 5.946118 63.26831
2001 6.275777 62.7039
2002 7.752902 61.81126
2003 7.981385 62.11931
2004 5.852894 63.20637
2005 5.729332 63.905
2006 5.365589 63.89081
2007 4.517697 64.30768
2008 4.980478 64.35228

vii