June 27 (Xinhua) -- Growing demand from China partly offset a further collapse in New Zealand's pillar dairy exports last month, the government statistics agency said Monday.

Milk powder, butter, and cheese exports fell by 90 million NZ dollars (63.66 million U.S. dollars), or 9.9 percent, in May, with falls in many overseas markets except China, according to Statistics New Zealand.

Dairy exports to China were up by 41 million NZ dollars (28.99 million U.S. dollars), or 30 percent year on year, last month.

Total goods exports rose by 5.1 percent year on year to 4.6 billion NZ dollars (3.25 billion U.S. dollars), led by forestry products and fruit.

Goods imports rose 5.7 percent in May to 4.2 billion NZ dollars (2.97 billion U.S. dollars), led by a rise in imports of consumer goods.

"The latest rise in the value of consumer goods continues a series of month-on-month increases," international statistics senior manager Nicola Growden said in a statement.

"The rise was across a broad range of consumer goods, including clothing, cosmetics, household appliances, furniture and medicines."

New Zealand had a goods trade surplus of 358 million NZ dollars (253.03 million U.S. dollars), or 7.8 percent of exports, in May.

That was higher than the average surplus of 5.8 percent of exports in the five previous May months.

The annual trade deficit for the year ended May was 3.6 billion NZ dollars (2.54 billion U.S. dollars).