Forestry sector 'could increase turnover 70%'

The forest industry could create 27,000 sustainable jobs by 2010 and there is scope for an additional 40,000 farmers to become forest growers, a conference was told yesterday. Dr Eugene Hendrick, director of COFORD, the national council for forest research and development, said the sector could increase its turnover by 70 per cent in the next eight years, with effective strategic development and marketing of wood products.

The industry employs 12,000 people and has a turnover of €500 million a year. While Coillte, the State forestry company, is the largest owner of forests in Ireland, there are more than 11,000 private forest owners, most of whom are farmers.

Mr Joe O'Carroll, operations manager of COFORD, told the 120 delegates at the conference, organised jointly by his council and the Scottish Forest Industries Cluster Workshop, that wood production in Ireland had risen to three million cubic metres a year, equivalent to one cubic metre every 10 seconds. Irish panelboard millers and sawmillers had collectively invested more than €400 million in recent years in providing capacity to process additional wood coming from our managed forests. With improved market advantage, this sector could see turnover increase to €850 million by 2010.

"With roundwood production in Britain and Ireland set to rise from a total of 12.4 million cubic metres in 2001 to over 20 million cubic metres by 2015, the use of wood in the construction industry offers great potential to increase the per capita volume of wood used in the UK and Ireland," he said.

"The increased volume of wood being produced in Irish forests over the next 15 years will offer the building industry the only renewable resource available to ensure the sustainability of new building developments. This will present opportunities for the agricultural sector to supply new growth markets," he said.

Mr Diarmuid McAree, chief forest inspector with the Forest Service, said that 9 per cent of land was under forest cover, but there was potential to triple or quadruple that amount of forestry. "This is all the more relevant as the Government's strategic target is to increase the State's forest cover to 17 per cent by 2030. It is estimated that an additional 20,000 hectares will need to be planted per annum over the next three years, with national and EU grants available to landowners wishing to convert to forestry."