Lack of funding hits timber production

A decade ago the timber industry was one of the biggest in the country with the Wattle Company being the third largest producer of pine-sawn timber.
Production has, however, declined from a peak of 395 000 hectares to 138 000 hectares.
Wattle forestry manager Mr Lenin Maunganidze said that there is need to acquire modern Bell timber machines to enhance production.
“Processing plants in the company have become unreliable, thus affecting production and we are experiencing breakdowns due to old processing plants that are currently in use, leading to an increased processing time.”
Mr Maunganidze added that due to lack of lines of credit, the company was failing to raise necessary funds to purchase new equipment as well as refurbish old ones.
“There is lack of necessary funding since we need to acquire mobile machinery to increase production,” he said.
He said inconsistent power supplies were also affecting production as the company was experiencing high production costs due to alternative power sources.
Meanwhile, Mr Maunganidze said the company is expected to take many years to recuperate from the plantation fires that ravaged its forests.
“Although we have reduced our annual cut to allow for regeneration of areas destroyed by fire it will take us up to 15 years to revert back to where we used to be,” he said. – New Ziana.