Dairy products drive surge in New Zealand exports to China

China took a record 30 percent of all New Zealand's exports last month and twice as much as the next biggest export market, Australia, New Zealand's government statistics agency announced Thursday.

New Zealand exported a total of 4.1 billion NZ dollars (3.4 billion U.S. dollars) of goods last month, with 1.2 billion NZ dollars (997.09 million U.S. dollars) going to China and 556 million NZ dollars (461.98 million U.S. dollars) to Australia, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Australia took 14 percent of New Zealand exports last month, but in January last year, both Australia and China accounted for 19 percent each, said a commentary from the agency.

Exports to China were up 92 percent year on year, led by sales of milk powder, butter, and cheese.

Exports to Australia were down 13 percent, due to falls in unwrought gold and silver, and crude oil.

The value of imported goods rose 3.5 percent to 3.8 billion NZ dollars (3.16 billion U.S. dollars) in January, led by capital goods.

New Zealand had its highest-ever trade surplus for a January month last month at 306 million NZ dollars (254.21 million U.S. dollars), or 7.5 percent of exports.