2021 NZ tree stock sales & forest planting

Following the main winter planting season, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) undertakes an annual survey of tree stocks sold by commercial forestry nurseries in New Zealand. The results are aggregated to produce estimates of total national sales, and then modelled to estimate the total area of planting by species and species group.

The commercial nursery survey results just released show that 96.5 million seedlings were planted in 2021, which corresponds to an estimated 95 thousand hectares of new planting and replanting. Survey respondents indicated their intention to plant 120 million seedlings in 2022. In 2021, twenty-nine commercial nurseries completed the survey of which eleven supplied bulk sales of mānuka as their primary activity or in combination with sales of seedlings from plantation establishment.

The total area of forest planting in the winter of 2021 is provisionally estimated from the nursery survey data and associated modelling to be 95,000 hectares. The total area of new planting in 2021 is estimated to be in the order of 45,000 hectares. Replanting of harvested areas is provisionally estimated to be 50,000 hectares in 2021.

The 2021 nursery survey asked commercial forestry nursery managers about anticipated sale levels in 2022. All nurseries responded. Their estimates indicate that total seedlings sales may increase to 120 million seedlings in 2022.

For the full report from MPI click here.

Source: MPI