The Forestry Owners Association is touting a solution to the situation which is seeing the country's log exporters unable to send logs to China.

Insect-infected European wood and coronavirus precautions have combined to fill up space in Chinese ports and subsequently halt our log exports to China.

President Peter Weir says some of the larger forestry owners have switched from exporting to supplying domestic mills.

"The smaller owners would export only in the regions where they are no domestic saw mills. Logging has slowed right down in those places. Inevitably and regrettably, there will have to be lay-offs."

There is a solution, he says: the Government had promised a "wood first policy" when it came to constructing Government buildings such as schools.

"If they would implement that policy right now, that would increase the use of wood domestically, we wouldn't need to implement this stuff."

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