The Government Has Signaled It Wants More Wood Processing Done Here In NZ Rather Than Just Sending Logs Overseas

The Government has signaled it wants more wood processing done here in NZ rather than just sending logs overseas. Forestry Minister Peene Henare has announced a $57 million wood processing fund hoping to create products like sawn structural timber and engineered wood. Mr Henare says he wants more logs processed onshore, to help transform the forestry sector from volume to value, lift economic performance and resilience and create jobs. Over the last two decades, New Zealand’s overall wood processing capacity has remained relatively stable while log volumes available to be processed have doubled. Executive Director of Sequel Lumber in Kawarau David Turner says it is a start as we should be exporting more timber than just logs