Forestry South Africa, which represents the interests of over 21 000 timber growers at all production levels, recently held its 16th annual general meeting in KwaZulu-Natal. Lloyd Phillips reports.
Forestry SA (FSA) has expressed concern about the volume of timber sold during 2017 declining for the third consecutive year. The volume had dropped to about 15 million tons, which was 262 000t fewer than that of the previous year. FSA’s executive director, Michael Peter, reported that the latest decline in timber sales extended across all wood genera, namely softwood (six million tons), eucalyptus (7,6 million tons), and wattle (1,5 million tons). He was speaking at FSA’s 16th annual general meeting recently held in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Compared with 2016, Peter said that sawlog sales had declined 6,8% to 4,38 million tons; pole sales had declined 15,2% to 331 438t; mining timber sales had dropped 5,7% to 277 418t; and sales of other timber products declined 38,7% to 59 483t.
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