WELLINGTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand fruit exports, led by kiwifruit, drove wholesale trade up for the second quarter in a row, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted total sales value for wholesale trade rose 2.5 percent in the September 2018 quarter, following a 2.6-percent rise in the June 2018 quarter, Stats NZ said.

"This industry's increase was led by higher sales for kiwifruit exports," wholesale trade manager Sue Chapman said in a statement.

Five of the six wholesaling industries had sales rises in the September 2018 quarter, with the largest industry increase in grocery, liquor and tobacco wholesaling, which was up 4.1 percent, statistics showed.

The basic material industry, which includes some agricultural products such as hides and stock feed, hardware goods, metals, minerals, petroleum and timber wholesaling, had the second-largest rise of all industries, Stats NZ said.