Foresters fill their boots for now

Post Covid-19 lockdown business for forestry companies is growing, but they are not yet out of the woods.

‘‘Things are trucking along quite well,’’ said Prue Younger, chief executive of the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA). ‘‘But the big thing with contractors is that they are at the beck and call of log prices.

‘‘For the last two weeks they’ve been pretty high but how long that will last we’re unsure because of the Chinese economy and the attitude of other internationals towards imports.’’

The pre-Covid competition from a deluge of cheap spruce logs from Europe had abated, she said, as China was being particular about what they let in.

China takes around 80 per cent of New Zealand’s log exports.

Certainly Tokoroa’s Jeanette and Dion Weedon, who spoke to in March and felt then the industry had never been so low, have noticed the upswing. Jeanette said her husband’s crew had been working six days a week on a block near Rotorua.

In March, he told in nearly three decades in the industry he had never seen it so hard hit. ‘‘Since going back to work it’s been hard out. There’s been no limit to what they can get out the gate.’’

But there had also been some mention to Dion that this level of work might only last a few more weeks.

Consistency was a problem, echoed Younger, who said she had anecdotes of some contractors around the country not starting back or putting crews off.

The possibility that the current boom was just refilling stocks in China, or because other borders were opening, had been further undercut with anxiety around new legislation requiring the registration of log traders and forest advisers.

‘‘A bit of concern is that it’s going to cost money to manage that registration process. The government can come in and make some hard hitting decisions on log quotas, so it’s an issue with domestic prices and export prices. So there are a few complexities outside of Covid-19.’’

She said FICA agreed with the idea of ensuring transparency in the industry ‘‘but at what cost does it come and what bureaucratic interventions will it bring?’’