Wholesale trade for groceries, liquor and tobacco has increased, heading into Christmas.

Statistics New Zealand reports that trade sales of those products are up by $74m.

That's in the last quarter of this year.

Trade sales of motor vehicles and associated parts are also up.

That sector has risen by 2% - a value of $39m.

The trend for total wholesale trade has generally been rising over the last few years.

The total value of trade sales in the September quarter was $22b.