The wood and the trees

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 18

The wood and the trees

The first New Zealand resource of interest to Europeans was timber. The tall kauri trees were considered useful for shipbuilding. The curious, the adventurers, and the escapers, were among the first European settlers of New Zealand but for those who viewed New Zealand for something they could not get elsewhere, timber was the attraction. A couple of hundred years or so later, wood still plays a significant role in the economy and the pressure is on to find more markets, as was evident in the seminars held in Sydney last week. Australia is neither a stranger to New Zealand softwoods, nor to the main softwood exported by New Zealand, radiata pine. New Zealand has about a million hectares of radiata pine forests; Australia has about 730,000 hectares. Because of its bigger population, Australia is a much larger consumer of timber and timber products, and there appears to be an assured market for New Zealand radiata pine in Australia for a few years. In fact, New Zealand has been exporting forest products to Australia for more than 100 years. The early trade was based on sawn timber and by 1888 the annual export volumes of sawn timber exceeded 100,000 cubic metres.

New Zealand is not the largest supplier of sawn timber to Australia, though it is a substantial one. The United States sells more Douglas fir to Australia than New Zealand sells radiata pine. Over-all, the Australian forest industry is far larger than the New Zealand industry in terms of total production. However, the New Zealand industry is far more oriented towards exports. In 1984, New Zealand’s share of Australia’s total consumption of forest products amounted to 6 per cent for sawn timber, 7 per cent for plywood, 11 per cent for pulp, 11 per cent for newsprint, and 3 per cent for other paper. As a supplier of Australian imports, New Zealand was the source of 22 per cent of the imported saw timber, 16 per cent of the plywood, 47 per cent of pulp, 40 per cent of newsprint, and 11 per cent of other imported

paper. In some technical developments, notably poles for pole houses and the use of laminated wood for outside construction, New Zealand leads Australia; in some other fields, Australia uses softwoods more extensively than does New Zealand and the technical expertise there is every bit as good. The major problems for the wood industry in New Zealand still appear to lie in the future. A great deal of emphasis has been given to production and not enough to marketing the crop. At the moment, the resistraint is on the supply of radiata pine; 10 years from now, the problem will be one of finding markets for maturing radiata. In the 1981-1985 period total production from softwood plantations in New Zealand will amount to 8.6 million cubic metres. In the period between 1991 and 1995 this will increase to 11.1 million cubic metres. In the first five years of the next century, the ammount will be 24 million cubic metres. Australia’s production in the first five years of the next century will increase to about 13.5 million cubic metres. Chile’s production might be as much as New Zealand’s. The Pacific basin’s production will have increase from a total of 17.3 million cubic metres in the present five years to 61.9 million cubic metres in the first five years of the next century. While many calculations have been made of the increased requirements for timber, care needs to be takeh that this is not confused with the total market. All those who need wood may not be able to pay for it, much as they would like to have it. New Zealand will have to pay particular attention to the world markets because so much of New Zealand’s wood production is for export. New Zealand must also take account of the means to harvest timber. For example, calculations are being made now to assess the demand for the energy needed to harvest the next decade’s trees. Carefully handled wood will be a valuable export for New Zealand for many years. Without sensible handling, it could prove to have been a wasteful way of using land, energy, and manpower.