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Rising production drives up New Zealand primary sector energy use

Xinhua, October 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Increased production in New Zealand's primary sector has pushed up the sector's energy use, the government statistics agency said Tuesday.

Diesel now accounted for over half of the primary sector's energy use, with the fishing and forestry industries being the main drivers of the increase, according to Statistics New Zealand.

In the year which ended March, primary industries used about 630 million liters of diesel, enough for a typical light vehicle to drive around Earth's circumference 193,000 times.

"Increases in diesel use in the primary industries reflect higher levels of production, with economic activity in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing industries rising 34 percent from 2011 to 2016," business performance senior manager Jason Attewell said in a statement.

"More than half of primary sector diesel use is in off-road vehicles and mobile machinery, such as bulldozers and tractors."

Overall, the primary industries sector, including farming, fishing, forestry and mining, but excluding dairy and meat processing, was using 26 percent more diesel than five years ago.

The main drivers of the increase in diesel use were the fishing industry (up 76 percent from 2011), which used diesel to power boats, and forestry (up 42 percent), which used diesel mainly for off-road vehicles used in log production.

Over the same period, energy use was up sharply in the agriculture industry, as irrigation increased.

The primary industries used 37 percent more electricity in 2016 than in 2011.

The rise was driven largely by the agriculture industry, which accounted for 73 percent of the total electricity used. Endit