Forestry in growth mode and struggling to find workers – Forestry has grown rapidly in recent years to become the main driver of the district’s economy, worth an estimated $262 million a year. A 2013 study found more than one in four households in our region have a person whose job is dependent on forestry. Annual log volumes are closing in on 3m tonnes, and predicted to rise towards a peak of 5.5m tonnes about 10 years from now.

Last month Eastland Port announced plans to invest $70m over the next five years, mostly to enable twin-berthing of log ships so it can export over 5m tonnes of logs a year, up from 2.9m tonnes now. Local co-investment to encourage more processing here will hopefully soon begin bearing high-value wood products. The big constraint on the industry — other than the state of our roads — is the ability to attract enough new workers to harvest the trees.

A local correspondent highlighted this “mission critical” issue last week, saying 400 workers are needed in the next four years and we need to produce most of them ourselves as there is strong demand for forestry workers nationwide.

His focus has been on graduate output from the two local training providers, EIT and Turanga Ararau, as well as asking what the Eastland Wood Council’s plan is and how that is progressing.

Source: Gisborne Herald