NEW ZEALAND – The New Zealand government is backing the forest and wood-processing industry to play a major role in New Zealand’s economic recovery, with the launch of the Invest in New Zealand Wood Processing prospectus to encourage wider local and offshore investment.

“The Government is confident that the future of the forestry and wood-processing sector will be bright. Our products are held in high regard internationally, and we want investors interested in being part of a sustainable high-value sector that helps support our goal to transition to a low-carbon economy,” Forestry Minister Shane Jones said. “New Zealand has an abundance of natural resources, access to growing markets around the world, and we are consistently ranked as one of the easiest countries in the world in which to do business.”

The industry has faced some short-term challenges but the medium to long-term outlook is extremely positive as the sector embraces new technologies and looks to develop more high-value products.

“Products will be sold not only within New Zealand but to a much wider range of markets than our logs currently go to, reducing exchange rate risk and building market resilience,” Shane Jones said. “At present more than 75% of wood from our production forests is exported in different forms including logs, wood chips, sawn timber, engineered wood products and pulp and paper.”