Every 2.7 minutes during December, Fonterra closed the doors on an export container of New Zealand dairy product – a staggering number of 546 containers a day.

A total of 246.000 tonnes of dairy products, loaded onto ships, was a record for the dairy giant, easily surpassing the 229,000 tonnes of product shipped in March of 2011.

December's record shipment boosted the New Zealand economy by $1.3 billion  for the month.

Annually Fonterra’s exports account for more than a quarter of all New Zealand exports.

Gary Romano, Fonterra’s Trade and Operations Managing Director says a good autumn and mild winter created optimal grass-growing conditions for the season, and helped create a ‘wave of milk, up 10 per cent on a daily basis, through September to November'.

Mr Romano says this was in spite of extreme challenges from the weather including flooding and a nationwide dumping of snow.

He says milk flow peaked at 80 million litres a day.