Today’s official opening of Forico’s $9.5 million Surrey Hills Mill is another sign of growing confidence in the forestry industry under the Hodgman Liberal Government.
We have a plan to rebuild the forest industry to drive economic growth and create jobs and the latest figures show our plan is working.
The latest ABS export figures show that wood and woodchip exports have increased more than 21 per cent in the 12 months to July compared to last year. TasPorts has also advised that woodchip exports alone also increased in the 14/15 financial year by around 15 per cent to 2.14 million tonnes.
Forico’s Surrey Hills mill will be a key driver of growth for the forest industry. It will support around 100 direct and indirect jobs through the North West including mill workers, contractors, harvesters and haulage operators.
The mill will initially add up to 1.2 million green tonnes per year of processing capacity to the North West and importantly, provides access for private plantation owners to drive a new round of growth in our renewable forest industries.
This will deliver a welcome lift for local communities by boosting economic activity and employment in an area which was hard hit by the rundown of forestry under the former Labor-Green government.
It’s important to remember just how big a role the private sector plays in Tasmania’s forest industry. Tasmania’s private forest estate already produces around 60 per cent of the State’s production of forest products and when the current private plantations go into full production, that number will increase to 75 per cent.
We are now seeing green shoots in the forestry industry under this Government. Just yesterday we saw the opening of the ARBRE Training Hub in Launceston to train the next generation of forestry workers, while it was only last month that Ta Ann opened their $15 million plywood mill in Smithton, which is expected to create 120 full time jobs when fully operational and inject up to $40 million annually into the local economy.
As a Government, we’ve secured sawmilling jobs, put Forestry Tasmania on a sustainable financial path, given workplaces the strongest protection laws in the country and we’ve ended the Labor-Green lock-ups for future production.
We are backing our forestry industry and providing certainty to the sector so they can capitalise on the gains we are seeing. We welcome the substantial investment by Forico and we are doing all we can to assist the company to get on with the job.