Agriculture in New Zealand

Agriculture in New Zealand is the largest sector of the tradable economy, contributing about two-thirds of exported goods in 2006-7. For the year ended March 2002, agricultural exports were valued at over $14.8 billion. The New Zealand agricultural sector is unique in being the only developed country to be totally exposed to the international markets since subsidies, tax concessions and price supports were removed in the 1980s.Pastoral farming is the major land use but there are increases in land area devoted to horticulture.

New Zealand is a member of the Cairns Group which is seeking to have free trade in agricultural goods.

The government offered a number of subsidies during the 1970s to assist farmers after the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community and by the early 1980s government support provided some farmers with 40 percent of their income. In 1984 the Labour government ended all farm subsidies, and by 1990 the agricultural industry became the most deregulated sector in New Zealand. To stay competitive in the heavily subsidised European and US markets New Zealand farmers had to increase the efficiency of their operations. Animal farming is pasture based, cows and sheep are rarely housed or fed large quantities of grain, with most farmers using grass based supplements such as hay and silage during feed shortages. Pigs are usually kept indoors, either in gestation crates, farrowing crates, fattening pens, or group housing.

In Northland, the major form of pastoral farming is beef cattle. In the Waikato and Taranaki areas, dairy cattle predominate. Through the rest of New Zealand, sheep farming is the major rural activity, with beef cattle farming in the hills and high country, and dairying increasing in Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

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