Media Release
Wood Processors Association
10 May 2007
Plant Loss Hard for Government to Ignore
News that the Fletcher Building MDF plant in Taupo will not be rebuilt, resulting in the loss of over 70 staff, comes as
no surprise to the wood processing industry.
Wood Processors Association Chairman, David Anderson, has previously reported that the current economic policy settings
are killing the very industry that will provide New Zealandwith the environmental means to meet its Kyotoobligations.
“Further erosion of the wood processing sector will only reduce forest profitability and hasten conversion to pastoral
agriculture, which produces rather than reduces harmful atmospheric carbon”, Andersonsays.
While the industry is not expecting government handouts, it is expecting far more urgency in reducing crippling
compliance costs and reviewing a narrowly focused monetary policy that has driven interest rates and the dollar to
record levels that are unsustainable for our major export earners.
Without urgency and changes, wood processors will increasingly follow the trend of other manufacturers, such as Click
Clack and Fisher & Paykel - and move offshore.
ends