Fruit exports drove a surge in New Zealand's wholesale trade sales in the quarter to the end of Septembers, the government statistics agency said Monday.
Total sales rose 3.1 percent, to 23.6 billion NZ dollars (15.83 billion U.S. dollars) year on year, after a 0.1-percent rise in the June quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The largest increase was in the grocery, liquor, and tobacco products wholesaling industry.
"An increase in fruit exports led the rise in grocery wholesaling this quarter," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.
Fruit exports rose 8.8 percent, or 50 million NZ dollars (33.53 million U.S. dollars), driven by price, in the September quarter, but the quantity was down 0.1 percent from the June quarter.
The trend for wholesale trade sales had generally been rising since the September 2009 quarter, and it remained at a high level.
