Fruit exporters help drive growth

AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s wholesale trade expanded for a 10th straight quarter and strong sales for fruit exporters underpinned the gain.

Seasonally adjusted sales rose 2.6% in the three months ended June 30, accelerating from a 0.3% pace of expansion in March, Statistics New Zealand said. An 11% increase in fruit exports through the month helped drive 3% growth in wholesale sales of grocery, liquor and tobacco products, the biggest subgroup in the series.

‘‘This industry’s increase was led by greater sales for fruit exporters,’’ wholesale trade manager Sue Chapman said. ‘‘Both kiwifruit and apple exporters had a very good quarter.’’

Wholesale trade covers intermediary transactions between manufacturers and consumers, which feeds into the national accounts and is used by economists to predict wider economic activity.

Sales of basic materials, which include other agricultural products, hardware goods, metal and mineral, petroleum and timber wholesaling, rose 3.1%, while machinery and equipment gained 3.5% and motor vehicles and parts sales climbed 3.9%. Other goods, such as clothing and footwear, pharmaceutical and toiletry goods, and paper products, increased 0.2%, while commissionbased wholesale sales snapped four quarters of expansion, falling 3.4%.

Despite the increase in sales, inventories grew 4.1% in the quarter. Motor vehicles and parts stocks jumped 14%, grocery, food and liquor product stocks were up 4.5%, and machinery and equipment wholesale inventories increased 3.4%. Stocks of basic materials rose 1%, while other goods stocks shrank 3.5%.

Unadjusted wholesale trade sales climbed 7.1% to $26.66 billion in the June quarter from a year earlier, while stocks climbed 12% to $12.57 billion.

New Zealand’s gauge of manufacturing activity, the BNZBusinessNZ perform ance of manufacturing index, registered slowing growth in production, finished stocks, and deliveries through the June quarter.

Since then, the July reading deteriorated further at a headline level with production contracting that month.

PHOTO: YVONNE O’HARA Export leader . . . Red delicious apples being picked by Robson Bihu, from a block in the Remarkable Orchard at Roxburgh East, earlier this year.