-ITTO
The implementation of Guyana’s log export policy has proven to be successful so far, the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) said in its latest bulletin.
The ITTO, in its fortnightly bulletin regarding Guyana, pointed out that the main value-added timber species showed a 40% decrease in log export volume in 2009 and a 25% decrease in the first half of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009. Among the main species that have shown significant decline in log exports are greenheart, purpleheart, kabukalli and washiba. However, production volumes of these logs have been maintained, implying higher domestic processing, the bulletin noted.
It pointed out that exports of value-added forest products, especially dressed sawn wood for construction, have increased for washiba, kabukalli and shibadan as a result of the policy implementation. “The Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) has been working to encourage the forest sector to take steps to further develop timber processing. The GFC expects that two currently implemented ITTO projects on Kiln Drying and Forest Industry Development will boost this effort,” it said.
The ITTO noted that according to the GFC, a comprehensive assessment and recommendations on the current log export policy will be published next year. In this review, performance of the current policy, other international examples, and plans for Guyana’s forest sector will be taken under consideration.
Guyana’s log export policy has a specific focus on enhancing domestic value-added forest production and utilisation of lesser known species and came into effect in January last year. The policy introduced higher export commission rates on key log species used for value-added production in Guyana. Before the imposition of higher export commission rates, the rate was 2% on all logs. The current regulation recognises three groups with different treatments applied since January 2009.
The first group of species were slapped with a 7% export commission rate effective from January 2009, 10% from January 2010, and subjected to 12% from January 2011 up to December 2011. This group includes: purpleheart, red cedar, letterwood, bulletwood, cow wood, tatabu, kabukalli, shibadan, tauroniro, washiba, hububalli, tonka bean, darina, greenheart, and brown silverballi.
The second group of species was assessed a 7% export commission rate from January 2009 and 10% from January 2010 up to December 2011. The group includes: itikiboroballi, determa, wamara, hakia, mora, dukali, keriti silverballi, wallaba, fukadi, and futui.
The third group assigned to the higher export commission rates includes squares 20.3 cm X 20.3 cm and greater (or 8” X 8” and greater). This applies to the following species: purpleheart, red cedar, letterwood, kabukalli, shibadan, washiba, hububalli and tonka bean.
Meantime, the report points out that log prices were down while for sawn wood, it was up. For the period under review, greenheart log prices remained unchanged while purpleheart and mora log prices were down, the report notes. For sawn wood, undressed greenheart (select) prices jumped from US$785 per cubic metre to US$933 per cubic metre over the period under review. However, the exported volumes were small.
