China's demand for dairy products and timber drove a 14-percent year-on-year rise in New Zealand's total goods exports last month, the government statistics agency said Monday.
Goods exports rose to 4.5 billion NZ dollars (3.84 billion U.S. dollars) in April, led by a 36-percent rise in exports of milk powder, butter and cheese, which were valued at 1.2 billion NZ dollars (1.02 billion U.S. dollars), according to Statistics New Zealand.
Quantities showed little change from April last year, up 1.6 percent.
"Large price-driven increases in values this dairy season, compared with last, led to record total export values," international statistics manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.
"However, April 2014 is the first month since August 2013 where the export value was not a record for the month."
China was New Zealand's main export destination in April, with whole milk powder and pine logs driving up exports by 246 million NZ dollars (210.11 million U.S. dollars) or 38 percent from April last year.
The value of good imported by New Zealand rose by five percent to four billion NZ dollars (3.42 billion U.S. dollars), compared with April 2013, leaving the country with a trade surplus of 534 million NZ dollars (456.29 million U.S. dollars), or 12 percent of exports.