Manufacturing sales rose a seasonally adjusted 8.3% in the fourth quarter driven by higher meat and dairy products, according to Statistics New Zealand.
The rise was the biggest on record since the series began in 1992, and compared with a 2.1% fall in the third quarter.
Removing the impact of price changes, seasonally adjusted manufacturing sales rose a solid 3.4% on the previous quarter. The meat and dairy product manufacturing industry dominated the volumes change, up 9.1%.
The manufacturing data is seen as the last piece of relevant data before gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter is released on March 28.
A Reuters poll has a preliminary median forecast for GDP growth of 0.6% on the previous quarter.
The increase of more than $1.5 billion was dominated by the meat and dairy product manufacturing industry, up 25.8%, which accounted for more than threequarters of the rise.
The sales increase is nearly double the previous highest increase set during the September 2000 quarter, and is a record for the series which began in December 1992.
Two other industries made significant contributions to the result. Other food manufacturing and machinery and equipment manufacturing both increased by more than 8% compared with the September quarter.
Since the June 2003 quarter, the total manufacturing sales trend has generally increased. However, the rate of trend increase has been at its highest level in the past three quarters.
Excluding the meat and dairy product manufacturing industry, total seasonally adjusted manufacturing sales increased 2.5%.