New Zealand farmers produce enough food to feed about 40 million people. So how do our farms stack up against other countries' production?
50,000
Stats NZ says there are about 50,000 farms in New Zealand covering about 13.6m hectares. The number of farms and area of land farmed decreases every year.
According to the Ministry for Primary Industry’s situation and outlook report, the food and fibre sector accounts for 81.8% of merchandise exports in the year to March 31. Overall food and fibre export revenue for the year to June is expected to reach $52.2 billion.
Farm numbers and size
Comparisons on farm size and production between countries is difficult, because most countries have both small family farms and large commercial farms.
The definition of a commercial farm also differs, with some saying a commercial farm is any farm a family makes an income from. While others have an income threshold that treats farms like a business.
The United States has over 2m farms, with an average farm size of 180ha. Small family farms account for 89% of all US farms. The US has crop farms that cover 61,000ha.
France has about 730,000 farms with an average size of 69ha.
Data on Chinese farms is spotty, but the country relies on subsistence farms with over 100m farmers growing to feed just their communities. Farms are also small, averaging less than 1ha, about the size of a rugby pitch. But some of the largest commercial dairy farms in China have over 50,000 cows.
Ukraine also relies on small farms, but has many large commercial farms and one grower that planted 510,000ha in grains.
South Africa has about 32,000 commercial farms and many small subsistence farms.
Brazil is a prime example of how farm types differ. It has about 800,000 commercial farms covering 75% of its agriculture land and contribute 65% of agriculture output. It also has 4m family farms that make up the rest of its food production.
New Zealand’s largest cattle farm is Molesworth station at the top of the South Island covering 185,000ha.
11,100
There were 11,100 local dairy farms in 2017, according to Beef + Lamb figures.
Kiwi dairy farmers are expecting to produce about 1.8b kilograms of milk solids this year.
Last year $19b of export revenue was generated from dairy products, with $8.7b sent to China.
In comparison, France has just over 61,000 dairy farms that contribute €27b (NZ$47b) to the country. A typical French farm has 52 cows.
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There were just over 23,000 sheep and beef farms in 2017, averaging 270ha in size. Almost all were owner operated.
New Zealand meat and wool export revenue is forecast to increase by 18%, to $12.2b, for the 2021/22 season.
For the same season lamb production was forecast to be 330,000 tonnes, the report said.
$3.5 billion
In 2021 we exported $3.5b of beef and veal, $3.1b of lamb and $396m of. That same year 99,000 tonnes of wool was produced, with 96,000 tonnes exported.
New Zealand had a total of 26.03 million sheep.
In comparison, one of China’s sheep farms wanted to grow 500,000 sheep indoors and aimed to slaughter 1m lambs each year.
530,000 tonnes
A total of 530,000 tonnes of apples and pears was grown in 2021, with about 360,000 tonnes estimated for the 2022 crop. About $831m export revenue was generated last year.
Kiwifruit exports added another $2.7b and wine $1.8b.
Horticulture products made up a massive amount of New Zealand’s exports.
Horticulture export revenue was forecast to hit $6.7b for the year to June 30, driven by a large kiwifruit crop and higher export prices for wine.
New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers said there were about 2800 kiwifruit orchards, and the average orchard was under 5ha.
Over 185m trays were produced in 2019 (a tray holds about 30 fruit), earning $2.6b in 2021.
That is the number of cropping farms in the country in 2017.
The arable sector grew 16,878 tonnes of milling oats in 2021, with 103,362 tonnes of milling oats grown and 337,638 tonnes of feed wheat grown for animals.
Most of our arable crops were exported to the European Union, excluding the UK.
Avocado export revenue reached $79.2m in the year to March 31, down 61% on the previous season.
There are 1800 orchards in New Zealand with yields ranging from under 7 tonnes per hectare to 59 tonnes per hectare. Local growers sold 3.5m trays of avocados to Kiwis this season.
Mexico is the world's largest avocado growers, harvesting over 2m tonnes in 2020.
$25 million
A Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment report showed New Zealanders bought about $25m worth of blueberries in 2020.
About 640ha was planted to blueberries.
In comparison Spain planted 4000ha in blueberries, the report said.
The average blueberry grower harvested just over 4 tonnes per hectare. In Peru mature blueberry plantings yielded about 15 tonne per hectare. However, the amount harvested did not translate in quality, the report said.
In 2019 about $40.2m of blueberries were exported, weighing 1637 tonnes.
