Good times beckon for timber industry

PLAYERS in the timber industry have said they look forward to repositioning themselves and contribute meaningfully to the turnaround of the country’s economy against the background of significant efforts by Government to revive the ailing sector.

There have been numerous calls from the stakeholders in recent years to resuscitate the timber industry, which had lost its appeal as most plantations suffered from a raft of challenges that included high costs of production, as well as invasions by illegal settlers who cut down trees to create space for crop production.

In March, the Belarus and Zimbabwean governments signed a Memorandum of Agreement for the supply of $43 million worth of agricultural equipment.

Another $15 million deal for the supply of forestry machinery to Allied Timbers was also inked.

Timber Producers’ Federation president and Allied Timbers chief executive Dr Dan Sithole recently said the industry was looking forward to benefiting from the financial resources to reposition itself in the economic matrix.

“We are beneficiaries of the Belarus facility, which has enabled us to recapitalise and buy equipment,” he said. “We were one of the few companies allowed to seek partners for recapitalisation. The equipment from Belarus is heavy machinery and we will work as a team to ensure it works for the betterment of the whole industry.”

Dr Sithole said they had already engaged Government to resolve social challenges in the forestry industry to foster positive relationships with the communities they operated in.

“In the last few months, Government has broken down barriers that had blocked us from associating and trading with many countries, so we believe the relationships we have fostered will be sustained and we hope to capitalise on these relationships,” he said.

“We will have time to consolidate our technologies, our resources and our markets for a better future for the timber industry.”

Government has come up with interventions meant to restore forestry resources through the reversal of some indiscriminate resettlements in forestry estates and conservancies.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa last year said Government had realised that there were some illegal allocations of land within forestry estates, a move that had resulted in the unsustainable clearance of trees to pave way for agriculture.

He said Government would, in some cases, reverse some indiscriminate resettlements created during and after the land reform programme in both plantations and conservancies.