More useful information would improve regional wood forecast

For Immediate Release

More useful information would improve regional wood forecasts

The Forest Industry Contractors Association is calling for industry and government to cooperate to provide wood supply information to improve short and medium term planning.

FICA President, Ross Davis says, “It’s no use politicians proclaiming regional log shortages without specific details, as every regional has different drivers. But it would be useful for wood sellers and buyers to have timely information about supply changes.”

Davis says the information would result in better business planning. This would benefit both industry and government, coming together to monitor and report ‘near-term’ wood supplies by region because:

It is not useful for politicians to make unfounded claims about wood being exported or harvested prematurely. Owners of forests are free to sell their resources to any market.

It would be useful for many tax-paying domestic businesses including logging and silviculture contractors and wood processors to have improved wood supply information for many of the key regions

The provision of useful regional woodflow data would help people make sound financial decisions rather than speculating on their workforce needs and getting it wrong, be they business owners or employees in the forests and mills.

“With our whole forest contributing to the Forest Growers Levy Trust, we know exactly what wood is being cut down where, on a monthly basis, based on levy payments. Between Woodco and the Ministry for Primary Industries we can analyse that harvest data to get a much more accurate assessment of wood still available,” says Davis.

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