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Opportunity missed over forest land sales?

Author
Jacqui Stanford,
Publish Date
Sat, 3 Jan 2015, 6:27AM
Photo: Stock.xchng
Photo: Stock.xchng

Opportunity missed over forest land sales?

Author
Jacqui Stanford,
Publish Date
Sat, 3 Jan 2015, 6:27AM

Labour's worried the country is missing an opportunity, as foreign companies buy forest land and send unprocessed wood overseas.

Forestry spokesman Stuart Nash says more than 500,000 hectares of forestry have gone to overseas interests since 2012.

He says while foreign investment is vital to the growth of the timber processing industry, at the moment only minimal cash is going into processing wood here.

"It just seems to me if we are selling all this land to foreigners, what we need to see is some value added in a way over and above that could be added by Kiwis."

 

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