WELLINGTON, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Rising fruit exports in the December 2016 quarter kept New Zealand's wholesale trade sales up for the third straight quarter, the government statistics agency said Tuesday.
Wholesale trade sales were up 0.7 percent from the September quarter, when they rose 1.2 percent, following a 1.8-percent rise in the June 2016 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.
"Sales of fruit for exports were higher than usual for a December quarter," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.
"The December quarter is non-peak season for fruit exports."
Four of the six wholesaling industries rose in the December quarter.
The grocery, liquor, and tobacco products wholesaling industry, which includes fruit exports, saw the largest rise, up 2 percent, or 150 million NZ dollars (104.95 million U.S. dollars), from the September quarter.
Other goods wholesaling, which includes textiles, clothing, footwear, pharmaceutical and toiletry goods, and furniture and floor coverings, saw the biggest fall, dropping 1.9 percent, or 76 million NZ dollars (53.2 million U.S. dollars).
The trend for wholesale trade sales had generally been increasing since late-2009.
The actual value of wholesale trade sales was 25.9 billion NZ dollars (18.13 billion U.S. dollars) in the last quarter, up almost 3.8 percent from the December 2015 quarter.
