New Zealand manufacturing sales fall

Manufacturing sales in New Zealand fell by 3.4 percent in volume in the quarter ending June, led by a 10-percent plunge in meat and dairy product manufacturing, the government's statistics agency said Monday.

"The volume decrease in meat and dairy product manufacturing is reflected in the fall of export volumes for dairy and meat products," Xinhua quoted Statistics New Zealand industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno as saying.

Figures showed falls of 18 percent in dairy exports and 7.1 percent in meat exports.

"Without the meat and dairy contribution, the volume of manufacturing sales was flat in the June 2013 quarter," Cardno said.

The trend for the total manufacturing sales volume also reflected the impact of meat and dairy product manufacturing.

"Both the total manufacturing trend and the meat and dairy trend, which were rising during 2012, have fallen this year," Cardno said.

Nine of the other 12 manufacturing industries recorded falls in the June quarter, with petroleum and coal product manufacturing down 5.2 percent.

Chemical, polymer, and rubber product manufacturing saw the biggest rise at 6 percent.

Total manufacturing sales value fell 2 percent, or 455 million NZ dollars ($362 million) to 22.3 billion NZ dollars.