Goodhew needs to back local forestry companies
17 March 2016
Goodhew needs to back local forestry companies
Jo Goodhew needs to come up with new ideas to back
local forestry companies, instead of siding with overseas
forest owners who simply send unprocessed logs overseas,
says Labour’s Forestry spokesman Stuart Nash.
“Overseas companies are buying up forests and selling the logs directly offshore, cutting local sawmills out of the process, even though local sawmills are prepared to pay export-equivalent log prices. That’s not good enough. In Gisborne one sawmill can’t get guaranteed logs, despite being based on the doorstep of a large forest owned by an overseas consortium.
“But National won’t do anything about it. In Parliament today Jo Goodhew just wrote off the problem. She isn’t up to the job.
“The
forest industry is a classic example of the market not
working. The Government needs to provide direction and
guidance to support the domestic industry and jobs,” says
Stuart Nash.
ends