A Victorian timber company has increased the volume of timber it is harvesting in south-west Victoria in a bid to stay internationally competitive. AKD Softwoods said that it generally harvests more from the Green Triangle region at this time of year because its plantation in the Otways is closed. Source: ABC News
Its resource manager, Neil Harris, said it signed a 10-year contract with ForestrySA in July, which requires more wood to be harvested and the company is competing against imports.
“We’re selling what we’re producing in a very tight market,” he said. “We need to access this extra resource to make ourselves competitive.
“It’s more that economy of scale that we are trying to get against some of the biggest players in the market.”
Mr Harris said the new contract means an extra 2000 tonnes per week will be harvested from the south-west.
“We’ve spent $10 million on upgrading our capacity here to improve our international competitiveness and whilst the markets are fairly tight we decided to invest that money on the back of securing that 10-year agreement with ForestrySA and securing a 15-year agreement with HPV plantations,” he said.
