The significant investment in the plantation sector over the past 10 years is beginning to show benefits for the nation's forest industry, according to a new Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics report.
The Australian Forest and Wood Products Statistics for the September and December 2007 quarters showed plantations, exports and the volume of logs harvested all increased over the past financial year.
The volume of logs harvested in Western Australia increased by just more than 12 per cent over the financial year to 4 million cubic metres, at a value of $351 million, and is a almost double the volume produced six years ago.
Total plantation area in WA increased from 388,700 hectares in 2006 to 403,700ha in 2007, and is a 20 per cent increase on 2001 levels.
Forest Industries Federation (WA) executive director Bob Pearce said the state's plantation sector was now well established and had started to provide some benefits to areas of the South West and Great Southern as pulpwood plantations started to come online.
"The chipping coming online is getting greater each year and its providing good income to the Bunbury and Albany ports, and wealth to WA," he said.
Mr Pearce said that, while there was growth for both plantation pulpwood and softwoods such as pine, the native hardwood sector, including jarrah and karri timbers, was struggling because of poor availability of quality product.
"It's hard to get the volume of good timber required; the quality of logs going into the mills is very poor and that's an issue for us," he said.
Agribusiness investment manager Great Southern Ltd is the country's biggest private plantation manager, managing more than 240,000ha of forestry land, which is made up of hardwood plantations and high-value timber plantations, such as African mahogany and teak.
Timbercorp Ltd manages 96,000ha of Tasmanian blue gum trees, or about 12 per cent of Australia's hardwood plantings, with plantations in Albany and the 'green triangle' area of South Australia and Victoria.
ITC Ltd holds more than 150,000 plantation hectares under management across the South West of WA, as well as SA, Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland.
