Despite being only a fraction of forest products compared to logs, dressed and undressed lumber have brought in almost the same amount in export earnings so far this year.
According to data supplied by the Forest Products Development & Marketing Council of Guyana Inc, from January to August this year, dressed lumber earned US$7 million while undressed lumber earned US$5.4 million, which combined was almost as much as that earned by logs even though lumber exports were only a fraction of log exports. Exports of dressed lumber amounted to 5,143 cubic metres while that of undressed lumber amounted to 7,582 cubic metres for the period January to August 2015.
For the same period, approximately 76,930 cubic metres of logs were exported earning US$14.9 million. For the same period last year, 86,250 cubic metres of logs were exported earning US$14.5 million.
The sole market for logs in August was Asia, mainly China and India.
Despite numerous promises of value-added processing here, log exports have been increasing over the years and little value-added processing is done.
Last year, exports of logs were up by a staggering 80.77% over the figure in 2013, according to the 2014 annual report of the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC).
Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman has said that should Baishanlin and Vaitarna not produce value-added products by the end of the year, their contracts could be terminated.
Earlier this month, Stabroek News visited Vaitarna’s Wineperu location and was able to observe that the company has finally begun processing of logs albeit on a small scale even as it continues to export them.
