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Poor road conditions blamed as log exports fall
Poor road conditions have been badly affecting forestry activities with exports affected in the first quarter.
According to the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) yesterday, the latest figures show that exports are about 8,000 m3 below the levels of last year
A truck with timber waiting to enter a city wharf compound yesterday.
for same period.
The poor road conditions in Upper Berbice, Region 10, and other hinterland areas have caused a stockpile of logs.
Exporters are now moving these, but the level of exports still remains low, GFC said.
Consecutive governments have been pushing for a reduction of log exports, with government introducing a phased increase in fees as a disincentive to push for move processing and other value-adding activities. However, exports, especially by the Chinese have been steady.
The National Log Export Policy allows the export of logs with the institution of up to 20% export levy on certain species.
“Our records show that we are close to 8,000 m3 below the level of 2018 at the same point in time. The majority of logs being exported are lesser used species. There has been an accumulation of logs for exports owing to the previous condition of the roads which has now been improved, and which now sees logs previously harvested, coming out of forest concession areas and into the market. These include logs coming out from community areas,” GFC said in response to queries by Kaieteur News.
Last year, according to official figures, production of logs was 361,519 m3, still far below what is allowed. GFC said that actual production is a quarter of what is allowed. That under-exploitation has been denting GFC’s revenues.
According to the Ministry of Finance, in its final figures, the agriculture, fishing and forestry sector grew by 1.5 percent in 2018, 0.4 percentage points better than the previous forecast.
This was due to significantly higher production of sugar, livestock and timber, which resulted in growth in these industries being revised upwards by 4.8 percentage points, 1.9 percentage points and 1.6 percentage points, respectively.
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