"RISKY GOODS: SUPPLY CHAIN RISK REPORT 2023: Aotearoa New Zealand Imports Linked to Child and Forced Labour", November 2023

Key findings

• In 2022, New Zealand imported $7.9B1 of risky goods associated with child and forced labour. This amounts to 10% of New Zealand’s total imports.
• The total amount of imports increased from $61B in 2019 to $80B in 2022; the amount
  of risky goods also increased from $6.1B in 2019 to $7.9B in 2022. The percentage of risky goods imported is 10%.
• Each week, a New Zealand household spends about $77 on risky products2 – more than it spends on electricity.
• New Zealand imported products from 74 risky categories from 39 countries globally in 2022. • Most risky goods came from China (74%, $5.8B), followed by Indonesia (7%, $585M), Vietnam (5%, $432M) and Malaysia (3%, $270M).
• $1.9B in imports was linked to forced labour, $764M to child labour, and $5.2B to both forced labour and child labour.
• Electronics were our highest-spend risky good in 2022. New Zealand imported $3.6B of risky electronics, or 46% of the value of all risky products imported. Most risky electronics (93%) came from China, where the electronics industry is associated with both child labour and forced labour. The remaining risky electronics came from Malaysia and Pakistan.
• The next four highest-spend risky goods imported were garments from Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, Türkiye and Vietnam; textiles from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Ghana, Pakistan and Vietnam; palm oil from Indonesia; and footwear from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Türkiye and Vietnam.