ew Zealand's dairy sector -- including the world's biggest milk trader, Fonterra -- is expected to reveal next week the size of its carbon footprint.
The dairy industry will release details from a case study under the Government's greenhouse gas "footprinting strategy" next Friday.
The Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, warned in October 2007 that the dairy sector might have only a narrow edge on British farmers in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions in producing and shipping milkpowder.
She said New Zealand could get dairy products onto UK supermarket shelves with a lower carbon footprint than comparable product from UK farmers, but "the margin is not that large".
The ratio of the carbon footprint of 1kg of British milksolids to the carbon footprint of 1kg of New Zealand milksolids was about 4:3, she said.
According to Professor Caroline Saunders, director of Lincoln University's agribusiness and economics research unit, 2007 research showed the UK produced 34 percent more greenhouse gases per kg of milksolid, and 30 percent more per hectare of dairy farm.
These figures included methane and nitrous oxide emissions from the cows, and the British farmers had a higher level of reliance on concentrated feed and forage.
The previous Labour government last year funded seven carbon footprinting projects in the dairy, kiwifruit, wine, lamb, forestry, berry fruit and onion sectors.
Details of the kiwifruit study have already been released, showing Zespri, the world's biggest kiwifruit exporter, found that each 1kg of its New Zealand-grown green crop eaten in Europe generates the equivalent of 1.77kg of carbon dioxide in greenhouse gases. Gold kiwifruit -- about 20 percent of exports -- creates a little less.
The Zespri study measuring the "life cycle" of exported New Zealand kiwifruit showed 41 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from supplying European consumers arose from shipping the fruit 20,765km.
Similar methods are expected to be used to measure dairy exports, though it is understood Fonterra may prefer calculations done on a business-to-business basis where its milkpowder ends up as ingredients in food made by other manufacturers.
The release of the dairy's carbon footprint -- expected on May 29 -- will be followed by similar studies of the wine industry, which had already completed its report, apples, and lamb in July, and the beef sector will lay out its figures in August.
Forestry, berryfruit and onions are also expected to come under scrutiny.
The carbon footprinting exercise has been overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) , where the deputy director general for policy, Paul Stocks, has previously told industry that with New Zealand's existing reputation as a clean and green producer, carbon footprinting can leverage exporters to have a competitive advantage. Alison Watson, MAF's coordinator for the carbon footprinting strategy told NZPA global supermarket chains such as Tesco and Wal-Mart are key drivers of carbon footprinting.
Some supermarkets such as Tescos in Britain, or Carrefours in France, or Migros in Switzerland wanted carbon footprint information, while others, such as Marks and Spencer wanted evidence that suppliers were working on reducing their emissions, she said.
By being leaders in delivering emissions data, New Zealand exporters could not only maintaining a competitive advantage but help frame the way that emissions information was used overseas.
And detailed knowledge of the emissions generated by their commodity at each step of the supply chain could help exporters with a wide range of sustainability issues.