New Zealand's merchandise terms of trade fell for the third straight quarter at the end of March, pulled down mainly by falling dairy prices, the government statistics agency announced Friday.

Merchandise terms of trade fell 2.3 percent in the March quarter from the December 2011 quarter, according to Statistics New Zealand.

The terms of trade measures the changing volume of merchandise imports that can be funded by a fixed volume of merchandise exports, so the 2.3-percent fall meant 2.3 percent less imported goods could be funded by a fixed quantity of exported goods.

The latest fall was due to export prices falling 3.8 percent, reflecting a 5.5 percent appreciation of the New Zealand dollar, said a statement from Statistics New Zealand.

In the March quarter, export prices for dairy products, which represented 26 percent of the total value of merchandise exports for the year ending March, fell 5.6 percent.

In other major exports, meat products, representing 12 percent of exports in the year, were down 3.6 percent in the quarter, and forestry products, representing 10 percent of exports, were down 4. 2 percent.

Prices of imported merchandise goods were down 1.5 percent in the quarter, influenced by petroleum and petroleum products (18 percent of imports for the year) dropping 0.2 percent in the quarter and transport equipment (13 percent of imports) falling 2. 3 percent.

Export volumes were down just 0.6 percent in the March quarter, mainly due to lower export volumes of petroleum products and fruit.

"The seasonally adjusted dairy export volume was up 11 percent over the past three quarters, offsetting the 11 percent fall in prices," Statistics New Zealand prices manager Chris Pike said in the statement.

Import volumes rose 5.4 percent in the quarter, "higher than the previous peak in the June 2008 quarter," Pike said.