Farm Forestry New ZealandNewsletter 62 August 2013
Newsletter 62 August 2013
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NZFFA P.O. Box 10349 The Terrace Wellington 6143 www.nzffa.org.nz
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| August 2013 No. 62 | |||||
Norske Skog successful with PGP Funding Survey on log supply chain Latest developments in harvesting steep country in NZ Forest owners support workplace safety reforms Chinese log import Development of the commodity levy
President Ian Jackson ijacko@xtra.co.nz -Ashburton -South Canterbury -North Otago -Sthn High Country (north) Vice President Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com -Far North -Mid North Newsletter editor Dean Satchell dsatch@gmail.com National Executive Angus Gordon angusg@xtra.co.nz -Taupo & Districts -Middle Districts -Taranaki -Hawkes Bay Neil Cullen cullen@farmside.co.nz -Mid Otago -South Otago -Southland -Men of Trees -Sthn High Country (south) Hamish Levack hlevack@xtra.co.nz -Gisborne East Coast -Wairarapa -Wellington Patrick Milne patrick@cypress.co.nz -West Coast -Central Canterbury -North Canterbury -Marlborough -Nelson Peter Berg thebergs@ihug.co.nz -Lower North -Waitomo -Waikato -Bay of Plenty
The members area of the NZFFA website can be accessed by using your email address and password to log in. Your email address MUST be the address you have provided to NZFFA for your subscription (which happens to be the one this newsletter was sent to...). If you don't have a password or can't remember it, you can get one very easily. Just follow the instructions here. Any problems logging in then email me. Dean Satchell |
Notices Tree Grower Mailing Glitch The August NZ Tree Grower has been mailed out but we have discovered that a glitch in the process has misaligned some names and addresses. This means you may get a magazine that is addressed to your correct address but the name is wrong. If this happens, be assured that it REALLY IS your NZ Tree Grower and the incorrect name is accidental. Branch Secretaries reminder Branch and Action Group secretaries can now access and edit records for their members online. This is an important responsibility - both head office and branch secretaries can edit the same records and keep our membership details aligned and up to date. A current email list of branch members is also available. Secretary access is from the Branches page on the NZFFA website while action group secretaries can access this from their own home pages. This is an important development, please use it! If secretaries don't have a password, don't know how to get a password and would rather I gave them one, or have problems logging in then email me dsatch@gmail.com. Dean Satchell Norske Skog successful with PGP Funding Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy have announced Primary Growth Partnership funding of $6.75 million to investigate producing biofuels from forestry residues. The ‘Stump to Pump’ Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme partners are Norske Skog, Z Energy and the Government. The Government will match their funding of $6.75 million to bring the project’s total funding to $13.5 million. “This is an exciting announcement as this partnership between the Government and industry has the potential to make an important economic and environmental contribution to New Zealand,” Mr Joyce says. "If the technology can be proven and commercialised, the economic benefit for New Zealand over the next 20–25 years is estimated at an annual increase in GDP of up to $1 billion and the creation of 1,200 direct jobs in regional economies.” “The Stump to Pump programme has obvious sustainability and environmental benefits. Local production of biofuels from forestry waste could be a game-changer for New Zealand and could also reduce the industry’s dependency on imported fuel,” Mr Guy says. Survey on log supply chain "The Orewa AGM, and articles in last November's Tree Grower, highlighted the importance of transforming the "wall of wood' that is coming on stream in the 2020's to a sustainable yield. The survey by Andrew Clarke that is described below is highly relevant to this. Accordingly the Executive encourages you to participate." -Hamish Levack My name is Andrew Clarke, I work for Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts and am doing an MBA through the University of Waikato. For my MBA I am doing a research project on the impacts of forecasted changes in wood supply in New Zealand from large to smaller-scale forest owners over the next 5 to 10 years. The Objective of the research project is as follows; "Given a forecasted shift in harvest volumes from large to small-scale forests in New Zealand, I will explore whether a an alternative supply chain model is best suited to ensure access to market for small-scale forest owners and wood supply security for domestic wood processors." Examples of alternative supply chains would be a co-op model or wood marketing businesses forward purchasing cutting rights from multiple owners to co-ordinate log supply. It is considered likely that the current market model will not be optimal for either the small-scale forest owners or the domestic processing industry when the increase in supply from multiple owners begins. In order to research the topic I will be doing the following;
The online survey takes approximately 5 – 7 minutes to complete and is anonymous. I will provide the results of the survey to the Farm Forestry Association and also write up an article on the overall findings of the Research Project. Please feel free to contact me with any queries by email at clarkeyalt@hotmail.com. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Log_Sale_Preferences Thanks, your feedback is very important to the project. Best Regards Andrew 027 6131348 (top) Forest Science Seminar - Latest developments in harvesting steep country in NZ to improve productivity reduce cost and improve safety Wednesday, 14 August 2013, either online via live streaming or at Scion, Rotorua (Rimu Room) 12pm – 1pm Spencer Hill, Research Leader for the Harvesting area within the Forest Management Team at Scion, Rotorua. Returns from steep country forestry are marginal, particularly for forests more than100km from processing facilities or ports. Unless costs can be removed from the supply chain, many steep country forests may well have negative stumpages in the near future. Matched with that is that the media coverage of forest harvesting this year has been outstanding for all the wrong reasons. With six deaths already this year there is mounting public pressure to improve the safety performance of forest harvesting. This presentation takes a look at broad economics of steep country harvesting and some of the research projects aimed at reducing cost and improving safety. To attend in person, please enter Scion through the main reception. For remote attendance via live streaming please let Katrin Webb know if you are intending on logging in. For login, follow instructions below. Cheers The FSSS crew – Christian Walter, Bob Shula, Tim Barnard and Katrin Webb SCOPIA setup instructions: At the time of the meeting, please follow the access method described below. Any issues, ring Katrin on 021648640 (will be at seminar directly and is point of contact). 1. Install Scopia - go to http://sds.karen.net.nz/scopia?client 2. The “Join Meeting” Window will appear a. Enter your name b. Meeting ID is 65129 c. Click ‘participate now’ 3. You will be asked for a PIN number – this is 5423 Please note: This meeting will become available to join on the Bridge 10 mins prior to the start time. To test that your software and hardware are setup correctly beforehand, visit our KVCS Test Room at http://sds.karen.net.nz/scopia?ID=6222&autojoin (testroom – 6222) Forest owners support workplace safety reforms FOREST OWNERS ASSOCIATION MEDIA RELEASE, 7 August 2013 for more information, please ring Bill McCallum, Tel 07 571 7907 or 021 347 608 The Forest Owners Association (FOA) welcomes the government's workplace health and safety reforms announced today. “The government has a vital role to play in improving safety in the workplace,” says president Bill McCallum. “It has the power to pull a range of levers that will influence attitudes, understandings and behaviours of all involved.” He says lax attitudes to safety are prevalent in New Zealand and even with the best will in the world, it is a battle to get safety to be seen as the number one priority by every individual in the workplace. “What we desperately need is a change in culture at all levels of our society, so that unsafe work practices are rejected as being socially unacceptable. We have seen huge changes in social attitudes to drink driving and tobacco smoking, thanks largely to government support for campaigns addressing those issues. “We now need the same focus brought to bear on cultural attitudes that portray risk-taking as being acceptable. “The real game changer will be when we get acceptance from everyone involved – from the boardroom through to the worker in the forest – that we have a collective and personal responsibility for health and safety. This is a responsibility to and by the worker, as well as to their workmates, their families and the businesses they work for.” He says members of the FOA and the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA) aim to do better than the government goal of reducing workplace injuries and deaths by 25% by 2020. “We are acutely conscious of our workplace death toll and the huge impact this has on the families, friends and workmates of those involved. No workplace fatality is acceptable,” Mr McCallum says. “Forest owners have implemented a number of major safety initiatives, but we are open to new ideas about how we can do things better and, in conjunction with FICA, the FOA is initiating an independent review of forest workplace safety. “The reforms announced today are significant and will reinforce the efforts of both FICA and FOA towards creating a zero harm workplace. But while strict enforcement of regulations is critical, without strong leadership from all forest owners and contractors and 100% commitment to safety from all involved in the industry we will not achieve the zero harm goal we are seeking.” [ends] Trevor Walton FOA communications Tel 021 381 465 (top) Chinese log imports International Wood Markets Group in Vancouver announced results for the first half of 2013 for imports of wood into China. The most notable changes are:
In the log trade, total Chinese softwood and hardwood log imports increased by 15.9% to 21.1 million m3 in the first half of 2013 as compared to the same period in 2012. New Zealand is now the largest log supplier to China with 5.14 million m3 - in the first half to 30 June 2013; its total exports to China surpassed Russia (5.13 million m3) for the first time. New Zealand was already the largest softwood log supplier, but now it leads the total for combined categories. Meanwhile stronger demand in the U.S. market for both Canadian and U.S. softwood lumber was responsible for lower lumber exports from both countries. All other softwood lumber exporters including New Zealand increased exports to offset reduced (and more expensive) North American softwood lumber exports. With a 70% increase in H1/2013 to 378,000 m3, Chile is very close to overtaking the U.S. (380,000 m3) as the third largest softwood lumber exporter to China, while NZ exports were up more than 21% to about 250,000m3 (but Canada and Russia both exported about 3 million m3 of lumber to China over the same period). Development of the Commodity Levy The Forest Grower Levy Trust Board [FGLTB] has been meeting regularly since the successful referendum last March. Board member Charles Schell stood down and David Balfour replaced him. The Board has prepared a levy order application that has gone to the Minister of forestry for consideration. Currently officials from the Ministry for Primary Industries are scrutinizing this application, but there are no indications there will be any objections, and Government approval is expected within a couple of months. Once this approval is achieved, elections for a Trust Board to replace the current Board, (which was put together by the FOA and the FFA by nomination to launch the commodity levy), can take place. However, much work is going on in the anticipation of Government approval. A constitution is being developed for the growers to consider. A system that is acceptable to processors and other data providers, which will work smoothly from the outset, is under way. The seamless transition of current funding to funding by the FGLTB needs careful management. Changes to current forest sector committees and organisations that deal with research and development, transport, forest health, fire protection, market development, environment, forest statistics, sector promotion, generic market development etc, and their reporting lines, will be needed. Administration of the FFA and, in particular, the FOA, will also be affected. Hamish Levack (top)
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