Higher beef prices have carried the value of New Zealand's exports up by nearly a percent this quarter, to 12 billion dollars.

Statistics New Zealand says meat was up by 15 percent, to 210 million dollars ... volumes were up too, by 4.6 percent.

There was enough increase in the value of other imports, particularly logs, to make up for a fall in dairy products - which fell by 328 million, or nearly 10 percent.

The trade balance for the quarter was a deficit of 904 million dollars.