The importing of up to $350 million of wood every year is killing the local specialty wood industry, new lobby group the Specialty Timber Council says.

New Zealand furniture makers and joiners are using Canadian western red cedar, American white oak, Indonesian kwila and Fijian kauri when they could be using native, or specialty, timbers from sustainably managed forests, the council says.

Not only are forestry exporters struggling against the high New Zealand dollar and high shipping rates, but producers selling to the local market are competing against cheap imports, it says. Imports are cheaper when the exchange rate is higher.

Council spokesman Roger May said he met the late Green Party co-leader Rod Donald last Friday to discuss the issue.

Of the 1.3 million hectares of native timberland in private ownership in New Zealand, about 600,000ha could be sustainably managed to supply the local furniture and joinery industry, he said. Only about 100,000ha was being managed in this way now.

Just under half of the timber New Zealand processors imported in the year to June 30 was Canadian western red cedar, Mr May said.

The council's comments came as Statistics New Zealand revealed that between 1996 and 2002 the use of plywood increased by 367 per cent in New Zealand, and the use of particleboard by 134 per cent.

AdvertisementAdvertisementThe increases were mainly in the furniture manufacturing and residential construction industries.

Exports of wood and wood products increased 40 per cent in those years. Exports to Australia rose by a quarter, and to Japan by a fifth.

The forestry industry contributed 3 per cent to gross domestic product in 2004.

New Zealand forestry companies argue they face difficulties the industry in other countries does not because the domestic market here is smaller for the size of the industry.

They have targeted Australia but wood supply is increasing there and other exporters are also targeting that market.

Radiata pine, the main species grown in local plantation forests, was an average timber at best, Mr May said. New Zealand should grow more exotic species and sustainably manage local species such as macrocarpa.

Mr May wants the Government to require timber imports to be from sustainably managed forests to create a level playing field for those New Zealand growers who manage their forests sustainably.

New Zealand also needed to improve consumers' appreciation of "good wood" – wood sourced from such forests.

If New Zealand required timber imports to be from sustainably managed forests, it would catch wood logged illegally.

The importing of illegally logged timber was an issue of concern to the Green Party, he said, as was the encouragement of New Zealand-made products.

The Greens had a "bit of a mind set" about logging native timber but it was possible to have an industry supplying specialty timbers that were from forests managed sustainably.

Mr May believed that even the imports of cedar from Canada were from forests that were not managed to as high a standard as New Zealand forests.

One aim of the Specialty Timber Council was to try to bridge the traditional gap in industry organisation between forest growers and downstream processors.