A $20M kiln drying facility at Crabwood Creek, Berbice, was commissioned on Monday by Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud and the project is aimed at ensuring value-added by deriving the maximum benefits from forestry resources.
The kiln is an initiative of the Guyana Forestry Commission and the Upper Corentyne Kiln Dryers’ Association and the project was jointly supported by the International Tropical Timber Organisation, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.
Minister Persaud noted that if Guyana is to export kiln dried lumber it can attract a market price of US$1000 per cubic meter compared to US$600 currently being received.
“This is a clear manifestation of where our government wants to take this country and that vision is to have a very strong value-added sector…in fact what we are doing is denying the country and producers of close to about 50 percent of its true value,” he is quoted as saying.
He noted that forest management and vision for the forestry sector is reflected in the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), GINA stated.
“This investment here is advancing the goals and objectives because within the LCDS it is not about stopping the use of our forest resources, or stop extracting timber as some may want to suggest, mining or agriculture, but it is about ensuring that when we use these resources we use it in a way that future generations can also benefit,” Persaud added.
While making reference to the Climate Change conference currently being held in Cancun, Mexico, he said while Guyana’s President is lobbying for compensation for the ecological resources of the country’s forest, uses can still be made of the country’s timber resources.
Persaud said that the potential revenues that can be earned from Guyana’s ecological service would be more than what is currently being garnered per annum from its traditional export sectors.
“In Guyana, we have what I would call the green gold and what we are seeking to do here today is to further that and to provide opportunities to the timber sector that did not exist,” he said.
