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| Dairying in New Zealand |
 updated March 2010 |
The value of New Zealand dairy exports in 2008-09 was $NZ 10 billion, the dairy industry is New Zealand’s biggest export earner – an established global industry with an exciting future. Key strengths of New Zealand’s world-class dairy industry are its efficient all-grass farming system, large-scale processing, high research and development investment and creative marketing.
The industry has been successful at diversifying both its products and the number of markets it exports to. Products range from high quality commodities such as milk powders, butter and cheese through to speciality foods such as infant formula milk powders and highly specialised ingredients like spray-dried milk proteins, active pharmaceutical lactose, protein hydrolysates and freeze-dried biologically active proteins.
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Development of new functional foods – like low-fat, high calcium and protein milk – and biomedical and biohealth products are also growing trends in the industry.
The dairy industry in New Zealand has expanded over the last five years. The number of cows and heifers in milk has increased by about 10% over this period, and the expansion shows no signs of dissipating. This expansion has happened at the expense of the other agricultural sectors shifting land out of these areas into either dairying or dairy support.
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| Fast Facts |
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New Zealand has 11,618 dairy herds and 4.25 million dairy cows and heifers in milk in (2008/09). Over time, the number of dairy herds has been decreasing while herd sizes have been on the rise.
Holstein-Friesian is the prevalent dairy cow breed in New Zealand making up 43% of total dairy cows.
New Zealand produces about 2% of total world production at around 16 billion litres per annum but, unlike most other countries, aound 95% of it's dairy produce is exported rather than consumed by the domestic market.
New Zealand is the world’s largest butter exporter and accounts for about 44% of all traded butter.
New Zealand is also an important exporter of skim and whole milk powders, contributing about 27% and 38%, respectively, of world trade.
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Dairy is one of New Zealand’s largest industries, contributing approximately 25% of total merchandise export earnings ($NZ10 billion in 2008-09).
In recent years, premium speciality cheese products manufactured in New Zealand have increased substantially and there are now over 30 boutique cheese makers, including prize-winning goats’ milk cheeses.
Development of functional foods is a growing trend in New Zealand’s dairy industry, and includes products such as low-fat, high calcium and protein milk, and biomedical and biohealth products, such as colostrum-based health supplements.
Organic dairy farms are a growing sector in New Zealand. The largest dairy company, Fonterra, has a number of organic suppliers.
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Dairying In New Zealand
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2005-06 |
2006-07 |
2007-08 |
2008-09 |
| Herds |
11,883 |
11,630 |
11,436 |
11,618 |
| Cows (million) |
3.83 |
3.91 |
4.01 |
4.25 |
| Average herd size |
322 |
337 |
351 |
366 |
| Industry production (million kg/MS) |
1,267 |
1,316 |
1,270 |
1,393 |
| Herd production (kg/MS) |
106,660 |
113,182 |
111,033 |
119,966 |
Source: DairyNZ Econimics Group |
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For more detailed information, visit DairyNZ - statistics.