Methyl Bromide woes could slash log exports

NEW ZEALAND’S LOG TRADE WITH THE outside world could be seriously disrupted if solutions are not found to the current Methyl Bromide fumigation impasse.

Don Hammond, who is Chair of the STIMBR (Stakeholders in Methyl Bromide Reduction) organisation, warns that the clock is ticking towards the deadline to either come up with a way to fully recapture the Ozone-eating gas or find acceptable alternatives by next October, otherwise we could lose 30% of our log exports.

He told the 2019 Forest Growers Research conference in Wellington last month that a phytosanitary alternative – an Ozone-friendlier gas known as EDN – is available but the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is dragging the chain over approval.

Meanwhile research has shown 100% recapture of the gas is not possible, but a level of 80% can be achieved, which STIMBR has proposed as an option – but the EPA has not replied on that solution, either. Heating logs in a giant ‘oven’ could also kill bugs in the logs, but more research is required.

With time running out, STIMBR asked for an extension to the 2020 deadline, but the EPA has yet to agree.

Mr Hammond warns that it has now got to the point where STIMBR may be forced to ask for a judicial review, to force EPA’s hand.

At stake is more than $750 million of log exports that currently have to be fumigated with Methyl Bromide – around 6 million tonnes of the 21 tonnes of logs exported annually that are currently treated prior to export.

Without a solution, we could kiss goodbye to all log exports to India, while a big question mark would hang over large parts of the Chinese trade. Debarking is replacing fumigation for some logs exported to China but not all, while Korea and Japan do not require logs to be fumigated.

NZL