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ForestX Comment





Shane Jones' musings on log export restrictions appear to have died a natural death. But, everyone agrees on his sentiment that we need stronger debate on the industry's future. We need to tackle head on the industry's reliance on a narrow selection of markets. Could we please stop talking about adding value to our logs and start getting specific about what processing has a chance of actually achieving better margins? More to the point unless there is even wood flow out into the future in each of our forest regions, how do we expect anyone to invest in any form of processing? What is it about the industry that has it at the bottom of local investors' list of targets? Finally, let's get down to some of the harder issues, like the bio security risk in having all our eggs in the Pinus Radiata basket. It is surely time for a serious industry forum so that a full debate can be had.