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Contractors, sawmillers for critical meeting on Friday

Aug 24, 2011 News

 

 

Wood shortage…

As authorities grapple with ways to solve the current lumber shortage, another critical meeting is expected on Friday, this time including contractors and housing scheme developers.
On Monday, government announced immediate measures that will see only forest concessionaires being allowed to export.
A number of major logging companies, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Forest Products Association (FPA), on Monday also pointed out that there was too much dependence on a few species of wood including greenheart and purpleheart, even though others are available.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Agriculture said that Friday’s forum will seek to include more players and will seek mechanisms to address the current shortages.
Weather and a number of large concession holders not harvesting enough logs have been blamed.
Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud said on Monday that a number of forestry concessions have been taken away for non-activity and will soon be re-allocated.
Friday’s session with stakeholders will be held at the Sleep Inn Hotel, Brickdam, and is being organized by the PSC, the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Forest Products Development and Marketing Council (FPDMC), and the Guyana Forestry Commission.
Invitations have gone out to building contractors, architects, housing scheme developers, lumber dealers, sawmillers and forestry concessionaires, among others.
According to the ministry, it is the aim to discuss the issue of the availability of lumber and lumber products for the local construction sector.
“The main objectives of this meeting include collaboratively agreeing on mechanisms to address the current shortage of lumber on the domestic market, promoting the use of lesser known species of timbers, and agreeing on the use of standard dimension lumber for the construction industry.”
Wood prices have been climbing steadily for several months now with several government contracts on hold because of short supply.
According to Minister Persaud, production figures indicate an alarmingly low 16% output for the first six months of the year. This was way below the annual allowable cuts that concession holders could have maximised on.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of this production was exported, with 89% being logs, further eroding the local market.
Immediately, government will seek to reduce log exports of the middlemen who are not concession holders of timber grants. While there are instances that these middlemen use the legitimate concession holders as a cover to export, the Minister said that GFC is aware of these players and will be addressing it.

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