Lift in sales 'positive'

An increase in the number of quad bike sales last year is being attributed to the strength of the rural sector; pictured, Vaughan Whitelock, from McIver and Veitch, with a new Suzuki quad bike. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

A 10.9% increase in sales of new quad bikes nationally last year is "positive economic news", Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills says.

It was a strong indication that farmers were focusing on productive investment and it also might indicate greater confidence from the non-dairy sector particularly, Mr Wills said.

There were 6570 new quad bikes sold in 2011, up 645 from 2010. Those strong sales along with sales of off-road motorcycles (up 8.9%) and under-50cc on-road bikes (up 7.3%) saw the motorcycle sector up a total 6.6% on 2010 sales, figures released by the Motor Industry Association showed.

MIA motorcycle division manager Clive Hellyar attributed the "relatively buoyant year" to the strength of the rural sector and higher petrol prices. Only the on-road category of over-50cc had declining sales (down 3.5%).

Quad bike sales at Dunedin motorcycle dealer McIver and Veitch followed the national trend last year, Jason Veitch said.

Mr Wills described quad bikes as "the farmer's Swiss army knife".

Any increase in sales indicated that farmers were focused on productive investment. It was a similar picture that saw fertiliser imports "leap" in the latest Statistics NZ release, he said.

Crude oil and fertiliser were key contributors to the 10% rise in imports in November last year, compared with the corresponding month in 2010.

The value of imports increased $382 million to $4.2 billion.

"Better returns are seeing farmers tackle deferred maintenance and that's good," Mr Wills said.

While there were more quad bikes, users needed to understand they were "unforgiving if abused".

Federated Farmers, FarmSafe, ACC and the Department of Labour all stressed the need for users to be competent and trained.