Media Release
Wood Processors Association

10 May 2007

Plant Loss Hard for Government to Ignore

News that the Fletcher Building MDF plant in Taupo will not be rebuilt, resulting in the loss of over 70 staff, comes as no surprise to the wood processing industry.

Wood Processors Association Chairman, David Anderson, has previously reported that the current economic policy settings are killing the very industry that will provide New Zealandwith the environmental means to meet its Kyotoobligations.

“Further erosion of the wood processing sector will only reduce forest profitability and hasten conversion to pastoral agriculture, which produces rather than reduces harmful atmospheric carbon”, Andersonsays.

While the industry is not expecting government handouts, it is expecting far more urgency in reducing crippling compliance costs and reviewing a narrowly focused monetary policy that has driven interest rates and the dollar to record levels that are unsustainable for our major export earners.

Without urgency and changes, wood processors will increasingly follow the trend of other manufacturers, such as Click Clack and Fisher & Paykel - and move offshore.

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