Shipping New Zealand's agricultural exports: background and issues

Abstract

This study has been undertaken as part of the Agricultural Economics Research Unit's programme of research into marketing costs of New Zealand's agricultural products. The present report has been compiled in order to provide background to a highly significant component of New Zealand's marketing costs, that of overseas shipping. It is anticipated that the report will be of assistance to those policy makers concerned with marketing and transport of agricultural exports, as well as providing general background to a number of long term shipping issues facing agricultural producers and exporters. Issues discussed in the report, other than the choice of shipping system, are the conference system of setting freight rates, containerisation, integration of Australian and New Zealand shipping services to other countries, and cargo concentration and port efficiency in New Zealand.