Wheat, barley and maize harvests all increased last year and grape production continued to expand, Statistics New Zealand said today.Provisional results from the 2009 Agricultural Production Survey, for the year to June, reported that the wheat harvest in
Wheat, barley and maize harvests all increased last year and grape production continued to expand, Statistics New Zealand said today.
Provisional results from the 2009 Agricultural Production Survey, for the year to June, reported that the wheat harvest increased 19 percent to 408,400 tonnes on the previous year as area under harvest increased 27 percent to 53,900ha.
The barley harvest increased 10 percent to 449,800 tonnes as the area increased 15 percent to 77,800ha.
The maize harvest increased 25 percent to 257,000 tonnes as the area expanded 26 percent to 23,100 hectares.
"Favourable weather during the growing season and high wheat and barley prices at sowing time helped drive the increase," agriculture statistics manager Gary Dunnet said.
The area under grapes expanded to 32,960 hectares, 11 percent more than in 2007 when the information was last collected.
The planting reflected wine exports -- 112 million litres of wine was exported in the year to June, Mr Dunnet said.
"Twenty years ago in 1989, only 3 million litres were exported."
Vegetable crop figures showed 11,490 hectares of potatoes were harvested in the year to June, up 14 percent on 2007.
However, the sweetcorn harvest was down 19 percent to 5040ha.
Sweetcorn was affected by several factors, including competition from alternative land uses, unfavourable weather in Hawke's Bay, and the closure of a processing plant in South Canterbury, Mr Dunnet said.
