Acacia forests have huge potential, says grower

Acacia trees -- regarded by many New Zealanders as a weed -- could earn Northland millions of dollars a year if grown in plantations for paper production, says Whangarei forestry manager Angus Malcolm.

Acacia woodchips are in huge demand as they produce high quality, glossy paper, and the first lot of commercial acacia planted in Northland is now being harvested near Tinopai after just seven years in the ground.

Trial plantings of acacia were growing well and could become a lucrative export earner for the region, Mr Malcolm said.

Mr Malcolm is the harvest and marketing manager for professional forestry services company PF Olsen and Company.

"They look really ugly and gnarly, but they really do have enormous potential," he said.

"They're not very pretty that's for sure but as (wood) chips they are in very high demand for making high quality, glossy paper such as that used in magazines.

"This is pretty ground-breaking stuff as they have never been grown commercially in New Zealand before.

"Acacia yield between 150 and 250 tonnes per hectare every seven years, which is a similar (yield) to pine, but that is over 25 to 30 years."

Acacia is a major export earner for South Africa, where most of the world's supply is grown, and Mr Malcolm sees Northland's ideal growing conditions as capable of making the trees a viable option for landowners in the region.

About 2500ha of acacia are growing in Northland, mainly at Tinopai and Towai.

Each crop takes just seven years from planting to harvest and growers get a far quicker return on their investment than traditional crops such as pine.

"You more or less plant them, sit back and wait seven years for the harvest," Mr Malcolm said.

He said the crop was also good for landowners as acacia put more nitrogen back into the soil than many other forestry species and they could grow in almost any soil type.

"This actually leaves the soil in better condition than before we planted them," he said.

For this first Northland trial New Zealand Plantation Forests Company leased land, prepared the soil, planted the crop and will do the harvesting.

Meanwhile, change in the forestry industry is to be the theme of the New Zealand Institute of Forestry national conference, to be held in Paihia later this month.

The conference, from June 19 to 21, would include representatives from most of the country's forestry companies, Mr Malcolm said, and they would probably be introduced to the exciting potential of acacia.

In other parts of New Zealand, including the Bay of Plenty and Southland, extensive plantings of eucalypts are grown to produce paper suited to facsimile machines and computer printers.

- nzpa