There are signs Tasmania’s forestry industry is picking up, with hopes of increased exports of veneer and sawlogs from the state’s north. Source: ABC News
Forestry company Neville-Smith Smartfibre has teamed up with SFM Forest Products and there are plans to export timber products from Tasmania’s north.
SFM has Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, meaning its products can be authorised as “responsibly managed” and are more attractive on the international market.
SFM’s Dan Ryan said he was hopeful the collaboration between the two private companies would result in Tasmanian veneers and sawlog products being exported and sold globally with FSC certification.
“We are looking at market for sawn timber — so saw logs, peeler logs that are domestically produced, and also for pulp wood markets in Japan,” he said.
Mr Ryan said he believed the certification was crucial to achieving that goal.
“FSC is certainly very important in the pulp wood market,” he said. “At the moment there’s limited access to the Japanese pulp wood market without FSC certification.”
Mr Ryan said collaboration was important when marketing Tasmanian products.
“At the moment, the market situation is difficult for timber products in Tasmania,” he said.
The announcement comes a week after Neville-Smith purchased the former Gunns-operated Southwood hardwood sawmill in Tasmania’s south-east.
The company had been leasing the site for the past three years.
