In New Zealand, agriculture is the largest sector of the tradable economy. The country exported NZ$46.4 billion worth of agricultural products (raw and manufactured) in the 12 months to June 2019, 79.6% of the country's total exported goods. The agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector directly contributed $12.653 billion (or 5.1%) of the national GDP in the 12 months to September 2020, and employed 143,000 people, 5.9% of New Zealand's workforce, as of the 2018 census.
New Zealand is unique in being the only developed country to be totally exposed to the international markets since subsidies, tax concessions and price supports for the agricultural sector were removed in the 1980s. However, as of 2017, the New Zealand Government still provides state investment in infrastructure which supports agriculture.
Pastoral farming is the major land use, but a significant amount of land is also devoted to horticulture.
New Zealand is a member of the Cairns Group, which is seeking to have free trade in agricultural goods.
History
Following their settlement of New Zealand in the 13th century, the Māori people developed economic systems involving hunting, foraging, and agriculture. The Māori people valued land and especially horticulture, with many and various traditional Māori proverbs and legends emphasise the importance of gardening. While the tropical Polynesian islands of their ancestors' origin were prime cultivation sites of various important canoe plants like breadfruit and coconut, the colder climates of New Zealand hindered this continuation drastically reducing their inventory to 6, three of them being root crops (kūmara, uwhi and taro) and were only optimally their most productive in the North Island.
European and American explorers, missionaries and settlers introduced new animals and plants from 1769, and mass European settlement and land transfer led in the second half of the 19th century to an agricultural system featuring large Australian-style pastoral runs raising sheep. Immigrant land-hunger, innovations in refrigeration in the 1880s and the rise of dairying fostered the land reforms of John McKenzie in the 1890s, permitting an agricultural landscape of smaller family-based farms which became New Zealand's 20th-century agricultural norm (the oft-repeated cliché trumpets that agriculture/farming/farmers constitute "the backbone of the [New Zealand] economy") - challenged only in recent years by the growth in large-scale commercial industrial agriculture and in lifestyle blocks.
A industry based on the gathering and production of native Phormium fibres (esp. P. tenax, known in English as "flax") existed from about 1860 until a decline up to 1985.
The Department of Agriculture controlled all meat-exporting slaughterhouses. By 1921 there were 32 abattoir inspectors and 86 inspectors of meat works. New Zealand mutton was marked as government inspected and pure.
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 under Rogernomics, 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.
Pastoral farming Pastoral farming in New Zealand is significant to the countries economy and occupies 38% of the land area, with dairy, sheep and beef being of the most significance.
In Northland, Auckland, Gisborne & Marlborough the major form of pastoral farming is beef cattle. In the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Manawatū-Whanganui and West Coast regions dairy cattle predominate and sheep farming predominate in Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Nelson-Tasman, Otago & Southland. Sheep farming overall has been declining in recent years with dairy rising to compensate.
Dairy farming
There were 6.26 million dairy cattle in New Zealand as of June 2019. By 2025 the number had fallen to 5.7 million.For the 2019–20 season, 4.92 million cows were milked in 11,179 herds, producing of raw milk containing 1.9 million tonnes of milk solids (protein and milkfat). Dairy farms covered an effective area of , around 6.46% of New Zealand's total land area.
The dairy cattle farming industry employed 39,264 people as of the 2018 census, 1.6% of New Zealand's workforce, making it the country's tenth-largest employment industry. Around 56% of dairy farms in New Zealand are owner-operated as of 2015, while 29% are operated by sharemilkers and 14% are operated by contract milkers. Herd-owning sharemilkers (formerly 50:50 sharemilkers) own their own herd, and are responsible for employing workers and the day-to-day operations of the farm, in return for receiving a percentage (typically 50%) of the milk income. Variable order sharemilkers do not own their own herd, and receive a lower percentage (typically 20-30%) of the milk income, while contract milkers are paid a fixed price per unit of milk.
Dairy farming in New Zealand is primarily pasture-based. Dairy cattle primarily feed on grass, supplemented by silage, hay and other crops during winter
and other times of slow pasture growth. The dairy farming year in New Zealand typically runs from 1 June to 31 May. The first day of the new year, known as "Moving Day" or "Gypsy Day", sees a large-scale migration as sharemilkers and contract milkers take up new contracts and move herds and equipment between farms. Calving typically takes place in late winter (July and August), and cows are milked for nine months before being dried off in late autumn (April and May). Some farms employ winter milking, either wholly or partly, with calving in late summer and early autumn (February and March).
Dairy farmers sell their milk to processors and are paid per kilogram of milk solids (kgMS). In the 2019–20 season, processors paid an average of $7.20 per kgMS (excluding GST), with the payout varying between $6.25 and $9.96 per kgMS depending on the processor. Fonterra is the main processor of milk in New Zealand, processing 82 percent of all milk solids as of 2018. Other large dairy companies are Open Country Dairy (7.4%), Synlait and Westland Milk Products (3.4% each), Miraka (1.4%), Oceania Dairy (1.1%), and Tatua Co-operative Dairy Company (0.7%).
Only 3% of dairy production is consumed domestically, with the rest exported. New Zealand is the world's largest exporter of whole milk powder and butter, and the third-largest exporter (behind the European Union and the United States) of skim milk powder and cheese.
Sheep farming
There were 26.82 million sheep in New Zealand as of June 2019. By 2025 it had decreased to 23.6 million sheep. This works out to 4.5 sheep for each person in New Zealand. This is a very large decrease from 1982, when there were 22 sheep per capita.The sheep population peaked at 70.3 million sheep in 1982 and has steadily declined ever since.
In the 12 months to December 2020, 19.11 million lambs and 3.77 million adult sheep were processed, producing 362,250 tonnes of lamb and 97,300 tonnes of hogget and mutton. 164,000 tonnes of clean wool was produced in 2006–7. Around 95% of sheep meat and 90% of wool production is exported, with the rest consumed domestically. In 2019, domestic consumption of lamb and mutton was per capita.
Beef farming There were 3.89 million beef cattle in New Zealand as of June 2019.
In the 12 months to December 2020, 1.59 million adult beef cattle and 1.15 million adult dairy cattle were processed, producing 698,380 tonnes of beef. In addition, 1.86 million calves and vealers were processed, producing 30,150 tonnes of veal. Around 80% of beef and veal is exported, with the remaining 20% consumed domestically. In 2019, domestic consumption of beef and veal was per capita. There are 7 million hectares of grassland available.
Pig farming In the first half of the 20th century, pigs were often farmed alongside dairy cattle. Most dairy processors collected cream only, so dairy farmers separated the whole milk into cream and skim milk and fed the pigs the skim milk. In the 1950s and 60s, improved technology saw dairy processors switch to collecting whole milk. Pig farming subsequently became specialised and the majority of farms moved to grain-producing areas such as Canterbury.
There were 255,900 pigs in New Zealand in June 2019.The amount had risen to approximately 620,000 by 2022.Canterbury is by far the largest pig-farming region with 161,600 pigs, 63.1% of the national population.
Pigs are usually kept indoors, either in gestation crates, farrowing crates, fattening pens, or group housing. 55% of the commercial herd is raised indoors. 42% of the commercial herd are raised free farm. 3% of the commercial herd is raised free range.
In the 12 months to December 2020, 636,700 pigs were processed, producing 44,950 tonnes of meat. In 2019, domestic consumption of pork, ham and bacon was per capita. Domestic production only meets around 45% of demand, with imported pork, ham and bacon, mainly from the European Union, North America and Australia, supplementing domestic supply. A small amount of meat is exported to supply nearby Pacific Island nations.
Poultry farming There were 3.87 million laying hens in New Zealand in June 2022, producing 1,100 million eggs annually.
Before the 1960s, chicken meat was largely a by-product of the egg industry; chickens for sale were generally cockerels or spent hens. The introduction of broiler chickens in the 1960s saw the meat industry grow from 8,000 tonnes per year in 1962 to over 40,000 tonnes in the mid-1980s. In the late 1990s, chicken overtook beef as the most-consumed meat in New Zealand. In the 12 months to December 2020, 118.7 million chickens were raised for meat, producing 217,200 tonnes of chicken meat.
Chickens account for over 98% of the country's poultry production, with turkeys and ducks accounting for the majority of the rest. Around 500,000 turkeys and 200,000 ducks are sold per year, with 90% of turkeys sold in the weeks preceding Christmas.
In 2019, domestic consumption of chicken and other poultry was per capita. Most of the poultry meat produced in New Zealand is consumed domestically. Due to biosecurity restrictions, importing poultry meat and eggs into New Zealand is prohibited.
Other pastoral farming Deer farming has increased dramatically from a herd of 150,000 in 1982 to 1.59 million in 2006, with 1,617 deer farms occupying 218,000 hectares of land in 2005.New Zealand Official Yearbook, 2008, p 358 $252 million of venison was exported in the year ending 30 September 2007. New Zealand is the largest exporter of farmed venison in the world.New Zealand Official Yearbook, 2008, pp 360–61 In the 1970s and 80s there was a huge industry carrying out live deer recovery from forested areas of New Zealand. The deer are a pest animal that has a negative impact on the biodiversity of New Zealand. The deer-farm stock was bred from the recovered wild animals.
Goats are also farmed for meat, milk, and mohair, and to control weeds.
Horticulture
New Zealand has around of horticultural land. Total horticultural exports in 2019 were valued at $6,200 million, of which $4,938 million (79.6%) come from three products: kiwifruit, wine, and apples.
Fruit
Fruit growing occupies around of land as of 2017. The largest crops by planted area are wine grapes (33,980 ha), kiwifruit (11,700 ha), apples (8,620 ha), avocadoes (3,980 ha), berries (2,320 ha), and stone fruit (2,140 ha).