April 20, 2026 • 4 mins
The NZFOA Chief Executive comments on the Indian FTA and challenging times for the forestry industry, off the back of the fuel crisis.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And someone else's probably hoping more than me for confirmation
of a free trade agreement with India is the chief
executive of the New Zealand forest Owners Association, doctor Elizabeth High. Elizabeth,
this would be a great boost for forestry and goodness
knows forestry needs it at the moment. Good afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, look, we're really excited about the prospects with the
free trade agreement with India. You know, the Indian market's
currently worth one hundred and thirty four million dollars up
to June twenty twenty five, and there's a lot of
potential for further growth with the big middle class they've
got there, and a lot of the discussions we've had
about what we could do in terms of the innovation
(00:44):
and building materials.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The agreement, should we get it past the goalie, will
eliminate or reduce tariffs on ninety five percent of New
Zealand's forestry and wood product exports to India. So yeah,
this is this could obviously be a game changer for
the forestry industry.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, right now, the Aussies have low or
no traces on their wood products and we'd like to
just have an even playing field with them at a minimum,
So really really hoping that this gets over the line
and looking forward to the signing in the next week.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
A doctor Elizabeth Haguer, this chief executive of the New
Zealand forest Owners Association. You do need it now more
than ever because forestry is obviously a very fuel dependent industry,
you know, with the logging and the transport. It's a
high volume. I mean the logs are high volume, kind
of low value, which makes exporting them very expensive. So
(01:44):
how's the forestry industry fearing at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, right now we're dealing with the increased costs and
we've seen both the marine shipping costs and obviously the
fuel costs go up pretty substantively over the last few weeks,
just like everybody else with the conflict in the Middle East.
We are working through that right now to try and
keep going. And I know that the forest owners have
(02:09):
been working with their contractors to I guess try to
keep those fuel adjustment mechanisms and contracts as up to
date as possible. But we are the longer it goes on,
the harder it is, so we are having to look
at what are ways that we can kind of spread
our risk and work through the turmoil, and certainly having
(02:30):
access to kind of more trade opportunities is one of
the ways that I guess over time that you deal
better with volatility.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I'm hearing that some of the foresty gangs aren't actually
out there working at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So in terms of the smaller scale farm forestry side
of things, in the woodlots, that's often some of the
first stuff to drop off when there's volatility because when
your costs go up, if it's like the only harvest
that you're going to do, you know, if you're a
farmer and that's a retirement blocker that's going to go
to pay for a batch, then you're you're probably not
(03:05):
gonna harvest it now. When the costs are higher, you're
going to hold off. So we saw that would loot
side of harving drop off pretty quickly. I think in
terms of the more commercial scale forestry, we're seeing that
folks are making a lot of efficiencies there in how
they use fuel and thinking about you know, even if
it's stuff down to having folks gang up in one
(03:27):
to go out to site. Now as an carpool that
we're just trying to do everything we can to cut
the you know, cut the sails in and make the
boat go as fast as we can on as little
fuel as possible. But the harvest volumes for those larger
scale haven't started to drop off yet. We're anticipating the
longer this goes on, though, that we may start to
(03:48):
see that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Just a final question for you, what are the returns
like for forestry at the moment the stuff you are exporting.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So the log price, We've still got good demand from
child and the price has been relatively consistent. I think
the problem we're seeing is with the increased cost, is
that the margins have just gone to nothing or you know,
there's some folks that are trying to keep crews going
are actually in the red. So that's what's not sustainable
(04:17):
in the longer term.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Doctor Elizabeth Haig from the Forest Owners Association, thanks for
your tom on the country. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Thank you,
And someone else's probably hoping more than me for confirmation
of a free trade agreement with India is the chief
executive of the New Zealand forest Owners Association, doctor Elizabeth High. Elizabeth,
this would be a great boost for forestry and goodness
knows forestry needs it at the moment. Good afternoon, Good afternoon.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, look, we're really excited about the prospects with the
free trade agreement with India. You know, the Indian market's
currently worth one hundred and thirty four million dollars up
to June twenty twenty five, and there's a lot of
potential for further growth with the big middle class they've
got there, and a lot of the discussions we've had
about what we could do in terms of the innovation
(00:44):
and building materials.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
The agreement, should we get it past the goalie, will
eliminate or reduce tariffs on ninety five percent of New
Zealand's forestry and wood product exports to India. So yeah,
this is this could obviously be a game changer for
the forestry industry.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, right now, the Aussies have low or
no traces on their wood products and we'd like to
just have an even playing field with them at a minimum,
So really really hoping that this gets over the line
and looking forward to the signing in the next week.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
A doctor Elizabeth Haguer, this chief executive of the New
Zealand forest Owners Association. You do need it now more
than ever because forestry is obviously a very fuel dependent industry,
you know, with the logging and the transport. It's a
high volume. I mean the logs are high volume, kind
of low value, which makes exporting them very expensive. So
(01:44):
how's the forestry industry fearing at the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, right now we're dealing with the increased costs and
we've seen both the marine shipping costs and obviously the
fuel costs go up pretty substantively over the last few weeks,
just like everybody else with the conflict in the Middle East.
We are working through that right now to try and
keep going. And I know that the forest owners have
(02:09):
been working with their contractors to I guess try to
keep those fuel adjustment mechanisms and contracts as up to
date as possible. But we are the longer it goes on,
the harder it is, so we are having to look
at what are ways that we can kind of spread
our risk and work through the turmoil, and certainly having
(02:30):
access to kind of more trade opportunities is one of
the ways that I guess over time that you deal
better with volatility.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
I'm hearing that some of the foresty gangs aren't actually
out there working at the moment.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
So in terms of the smaller scale farm forestry side
of things, in the woodlots, that's often some of the
first stuff to drop off when there's volatility because when
your costs go up, if it's like the only harvest
that you're going to do, you know, if you're a
farmer and that's a retirement blocker that's going to go
to pay for a batch, then you're you're probably not
(03:05):
gonna harvest it now. When the costs are higher, you're
going to hold off. So we saw that would loot
side of harving drop off pretty quickly. I think in
terms of the more commercial scale forestry, we're seeing that
folks are making a lot of efficiencies there in how
they use fuel and thinking about you know, even if
it's stuff down to having folks gang up in one
(03:27):
to go out to site. Now as an carpool that
we're just trying to do everything we can to cut
the you know, cut the sails in and make the
boat go as fast as we can on as little
fuel as possible. But the harvest volumes for those larger
scale haven't started to drop off yet. We're anticipating the
longer this goes on, though, that we may start to
(03:48):
see that.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Just a final question for you, what are the returns
like for forestry at the moment the stuff you are exporting.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
So the log price, We've still got good demand from
child and the price has been relatively consistent. I think
the problem we're seeing is with the increased cost, is
that the margins have just gone to nothing or you know,
there's some folks that are trying to keep crews going
are actually in the red. So that's what's not sustainable
(04:17):
in the longer term.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Doctor Elizabeth Haig from the Forest Owners Association, thanks for
your tom on the country. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Thank you,
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