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How much of New Zealand’s trade passes through the Panama Canal?

In 2024, an estimated $11.4 billion of New Zealand’s trade passed through the Panama Canal, 15% of its seaborne trade. That is $6.2 billion of exports and $5.3 billion of imports. The partners with the most trade through it are the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Summary

Estimated value
$11.4billion
Of its seaborne trade
15%
Exports
$6.2billion
Imports
$5.3billion

Trend

Estimated value per year

New Zealand’s estimated trade through the Panama Canal rose 6% between 2019 and 2024

Value in USD billions

  • New Zealand 11.4

Source: CEPII BACI

Show the numbers
YearEstimated valueOf its seaborne trade
1995$5.4 billion22.7%
1996$5.6 billion22.2%
1997$5.7 billion23.1%
1998$5.2 billion24.5%
1999$5.6 billion24%
2000$5.3 billion21.8%
2001$5.7 billion22.8%
2002$6.1 billion22.8%
2003$7.1 billion22.5%
2004$8.2 billion21.6%
2005$8.8 billion21.1%
2006$8.4 billion19.8%
2007$9.7 billion19.2%
2008$10.4 billion18.3%
2009$8 billion18.6%
2010$8.7 billion16.4%
2011$10.8 billion17%
2012$10.4 billion16.1%
2013$11 billion16.2%
2014$11.7 billion16.2%
2015$10.7 billion17.7%
2016$10.2 billion17.2%
2017$11 billion16.5%
2018$11.5 billion16%
2019$10.8 billion15.6%
2020$9.9 billion15.5%
2021$11.8 billion14.5%
2022$12.4 billion14.3%
2023$11.7 billion14.7%
2024$11.4 billion15%

Partners whose trade crosses it

Estimated value of its trade with each partner that crosses the chokepoint; the percentage is the share of all its trade through the chokepoint, not of the pair’s trade.

  1. New Zealand–United States$3.1 billion · 27%
  2. New Zealand–Germany$1.9 billion · 16.3%
  3. New Zealand–United Kingdom$1.5 billion · 13.5%
  4. New Zealand–Netherlands$848 million · 7.4%
  5. New Zealand–Belgium$761 million · 6.7%
  6. New Zealand–France$614 million · 5.4%
  7. New Zealand–Canada$545 million · 4.8%
  8. New Zealand–Spain$467 million · 4.1%
  9. New Zealand–Poland$274 million · 2.4%
  10. New Zealand–Sweden$205 million · 1.8%

What crosses it

The products with the highest estimated value in 2024, with their share of the total through the chokepoint.

  1. Lamb and goat meat$1 billion · 8.8%
  2. Other fresh fruit (berries, kiwi)$983 million · 8.6%
  3. Wine$720 million · 6.3%
  4. Cars$615 million · 5.4%
  5. Frozen beef$552 million · 4.8%
  6. Turbojets and gas turbines$245 million · 2.1%
  7. Trucks$206 million · 1.8%
  8. Whey$183 million · 1.6%
  9. Butter and milk fats$176 million · 1.5%
  10. Cheese$164 million · 1.4%

Reference ports

Auckland (100%)

Each port with the weight it receives from the country’s trade, based on where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest.

Other chokepoints it uses

Sources and method

Sources and licenses

Methodology

We estimate the value crossing each chokepoint from BACI trade that travels by sea according to our mode heuristic, split between each country’s ports by where its GDP is generated and which coast is closest, and routed over our own sea network. It is an estimate, not a count of ships. It covers 99.9% of seaborne trade. The approach follows Verschuur, Lumma and Hall (Nature Communications, 2025). Data up to 2024.

All maritime chokepoints