Export Earnings

The seafood industry has shown excellent growth in foreign exchange earnings from $162 million in 1982 to over a billion in 1992.

The main reasons for this improvement were:

• A much greater amount of added value processing in New Zealand
• Good prices for hoki caused by a move from surimi to fillet production.
• The effects of several years promotional activities in the USA for the sale of hoki.
• Decreasing supplies of medium-priced whitefish fillets in international markets

Export earnings from seafood are expected to double to $2 billion by the year 2000 and much of that growth will be from added value processing resulting in increasing numbers of jobs on-shore in the processing and marketing sectors.

The long term outlook for NZ seafood exports is promising. World seafood resources are under stress and an international movement towards lighter, healthy eating is seeing seafood become the food of choice in an increasing number of countries.

Increasingly trade links with Europe are being strengthened. Currently NZ earns some 10% of its seafood export revenue from Europe but this has increased four-fold in the last four years.