A rural economist is hopeful our trade market can weather the Covid-19 storm

It's been a good start to the year for trade in New Zealand, with the country recording a seasonally-adjusted February goods trade surplus of 223-million-dollars.

It also saw the largest unadjusted surplus for the month in six years.

But senior rural economist Nathan Penny says the fallout from the pandemic is growing, so the sooner things return to normal? the better.

He says if the Chinese market can gradually return to normal over the coming months, that will help our exports hold up.