Anti-Russian ruse splits logging industry

By CHRIS DANIELS, Forestry writer

A cunning plan to get the environmental lobby to help the forestry industry has sparked a dispute between the country's largest forestry company and the federation of timber processors.

At the centre of the dispute is a call by Carter Holt Harvey chief Jay Goodenbour for the industry to enlist the help of environmentalists to highlight destructive methods used by competing Russian loggers.

Large amounts of timber logged from Siberia are flooding Asian markets and undercutting New Zealand exports to China, Japan and Korea, said Mr Goodenbour.

The felling of old forests was damaging the last remaining habitat of the Siberian tiger and some endangered species of bear.

The Russians left 40 per cent of felled trees to rot.

Mr Goodenbour said the New Zealand industry should not sit back and wait for the environmental lobby to highlight this.

"What's wrong with just pointing it out?"

But an item in the Timber Industry Federation's latest newsletter described the strategy as having a "distinctly Napoleonic air".

Mr Goodenbour responded that the federation "had the audacity to say it's a foolish strategy".

"We've got a great story to tell and the simple fact is that Tif [the Timber Industry Federation] tend to always find the negative in things."

Federation members thought the only way to get rich was by "doing something" to their New Zealand rivals and fighting with their domestic neighbours, said Mr Goodenbour.

New Zealand had to take market share from those countries harvesting trees in a destructive way.

Federation executive director Wayne Coffey said Mr Goodenbour's comments about the local industry amounted to abuse of his own customers.

Carter Holt, as a result of its previous strategy of trying to "corner the market" in New Zealand logs, had now become the least preferred supplier to the local timber industry.

"Until he can prove one of his strategies makes some money, I would be very quiet."

Mr Coffey said that instead of trying to convince foreign customers that Russian wood was being harvested in an environmentally damaging way, Carter Holt would be better off concentrating on its business - delivering quality logs on time at a good price.

None of the world's timber companies had become successful by attacking competitors, and customers were not interested in firms that "slagged others off".

Mr Coffey was incensed by Mr Goodenbour's assessment that NZ timber industry members were fighting among themselves. He said partnerships were being formed between rival companies where appropriate.

Carter Holt had declined recent offers to join export partnerships, including one in Shanghai led by Trade NZ and involving 18 other NZ timber exporters, Mr Coffey said.

Support for an environmentally driven strategy was rich coming from Carter Holt, he said.

It had initially opposed the now widely adopted Forest Stewardship Council method of certifying wood that came from well-managed and logged forests.