It was a positive year for beef, veal, lamb and mutton exports, which were up $480 million on the previous season, Beef and Lamb New Zealand Economic Service analysis showed.
The 2013-14 season finished on September 30. All values quoted are free on board and in New Zealand dollars.
For the second consecutive season, North Asia was the largest market region for this country's meat exports, accounting for 31% of total returns, Beef and Lamb chief economist Andrew Burtt said.
The European Union (EU) and North America remained the primary markets for lamb and beef/veal, respectively.
''The amount of lamb exported was down 3%, reflecting last season's smaller lamb crop, but total returns were up 9.5% to $2.52 billion.
''That's because the average per-tonne value of lamb being exported rose 13% - to $8300, compared to $7400 in 2012-13.''
The EU accounted for 48% of lamb returns in the 2013-14 season.
''North Asia was the second-largest market destination for New Zealand lamb, at 34% by volume, but average returns were well below those achieved in the EU, reflecting the different product mixes exported to the two regions,'' Mr Burtt said.
''For the season just concluded, the average per-tonne return for North Asia was $6000, compared to $10,200 for the EU.
Further processing was carried out on 94% of lamb exports, while 22% were chilled product.
The 2013-14 year was New Zealand's second-largest mutton export season, at 93,000 tonnes - 11% up on last season, mainly due to land use switching to dairying.
It was also the second-largest beef and veal export season in history - 383,000 tonnes - as a result of high beef production and an increased number of dairy cows processed.
''Total beef and veal returns were up 8.4% to $2.29 billion, while the average value was up 2.1% to $6000 per tonne.''
''North America accounted for 48% of beef and veal returns, while North Asia accounted for 30%.''
Beef and Lamb has developed an interactive tool for further analysis of New Zealand's meat exports. It allows the user to generate and download customised data and graphs of export lamb, mutton and beef statistics, by market, value and volume. It can be accessed online at: portal.beeflambnz.com/tools/export-tool