Export drop hits logging crew pay

At least eight forestry crews in Southland that are connected to Rayonier Matariki Forests are working on reduced days because of a drop in the logging export market caused by coronavirus.

Stats NZ released provisional data on exports for the four weeks and one day to February 29 that show New Zealand’s exports to China were $142 million less than in the same period of 2019. For the four weeks to February 23, forestry exports were worth $180m, down from $250m a year earlier.

Rayonier Matariki operations general manager Darren Mann said all its contractors across the country were working four-day weeks to manage the effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

This included eight contractors in Southland, Mann said.

In Southland, forestry crews that were focused on domestic wood appeared to be fine, while crews focused on export markets were feeling the impact.

Greg Lindsay, the general manager of Kennington-based company Log Marketing New Zealand, said some forestry crews had closed down while others had been working on reduced hours and were limiting their production output to 80 per cent of the usual rates.

There were a lot of crews concerned at what the next six months would bring, he said.

Lindsay believed Southland was doing better than a lot of other regions because it had a strong domestic market. Sawmills such as Niagara Sawmilling Company and Craigpine Timber had been helping the domestic end of the market and domestic prices had been high, he said.

IFS Growth regional manager Anton Ridley said all of the company’s crews were currently at full production, but this could be reviewed if stockpiles of logs built up in China. ‘‘So far we have been able to work through the recent issues with minimal impact on price and volumes supplied by IFS Growth.’’

Southland was fortunate to have a solid domestic market that took about half the logs it harvested, he said.

Forestry Industry Contractors Association chief executive Prue Younger said the association was exploring options to move forestry contractors to other industries such as wine production.

Southland did not have a strong horticultural industry, so it was exploring other options such as working with the Department of Conservation to move workers into the removal of wilding pine, Younger said.

However, if this went ahead it would equate to a small number of jobs, she said.