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Forestry is an important industry for New Zealand

in 2024 forestry contributed:

  • $5.89 billion in annual export revenue - $3.13 billion from logs and $2.76 billion from other forest products
    $3.6 billion to gross domestic product (GDP), representing 1.3% of New Zealand's GDP
    to the employment of around 42,000 people in forestry and logging, wood production, and processing.

Forestry and wood products are New Zealand's fourth-largest food and fibre export earner, just behind horticulture. New Zealand's planted production forest covers 1.79 million hectares as at April 2024 with an average age of 18.7 years. Radiata pine makes up 91% of this.

New Zealand is a small player in the international forestry industry, contributing only 1.1% of the world's trade in forest products.

An estimated 32.7 million cubic metres of timber was harvested in 2024. Volumes are expected to be high this decade (to 2030) as forests planted in recent decades reach maturity.

Forestry and wood processing supply chain diagram

We've created a diagram of the supply chain. It gives a view of the relationships between forestry and wood product suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers. We published it in December 2022.

New Zealand forestry and wood processing supply chain — Pinus radiata [PDF, 480 KB]

If you have questions or feedback about the diagram, email teururakau@mpi.govt.nz

Forestry nurseries and forest establishment supply chains

These descriptions and accompanying diagrams explain forestry supply chains in detail. They describe the activities to produce forestry nursery stock through to the activities required to establish a forest. They give a view of the relationships between inputs, outputs, customers and suppliers and these activities.

Forestry data on Canopy

More forestry data is on the Canopy website. Find tables and reports of the data below, plus these interactive visualisations:

Data and research – Canopy

Statistics and data about forestry in New Zealand

Find surveys, statistics and reports compiled from MPI, Statistics New Zealand and other sources on many aspecs of the forest industry. 

New Zealand forest data

Forest surveys, statistics and reports on:

  • deforestation surveys
  • forest land under the Emissions Trading Scheme
  • National Exotic Forest Description reports and yield tables
  • stock sales from commercial forestry nurseries
  • wood availability forecasts.

New Zealand forest data

Forestry facts and figures – New Zealand Forest Owners’ Association

Wood processing data

Survey statistics from wood processors around New Zealand, compiled with export data sources from Statistics New Zealand. Covers:

  • log and roundwood removal
  • sawn timber
  • panels
  • pulp, paper, and paperboard
  • quarterly production, stock and roundwood removals.

Wood processing data

Wood product markets data

Data on forestry imports and exports and indicative log prices. Includes latest indicative New Zealand radiata pine log prices.

Wood product markets data

Who to contact

If you have questions about forestry statistics or would like to get them in a CSV format, email stats_info@mpi.govt.nz

 

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