New Zealand has some of the world’s largest and most intensively managed production plantations. Most are pine (pinus radiata), at 89 percent of total plantation and 7 percent of New Zealand’s land use, followed by Douglas fir at 6 percent.

New Zealand pine forests are genetically selected to ensure excellent quality in terms of growth, form and wood properties, with harvesting possible all year round, thanks to New Zealand’s climate and topography.

Exports in the wood industry sector in New Zealand in the year ending March 2008 totalled just under $3 billion (not including paper products) and covered a broad spectrum of products:

• solid wood (logs, roundwood, lumber, processed/remanufactured wood)
• panels (reconstituted wood such as fibre board, particle board)
• engineered wood products (plywood, veneers, laminated veneer lumber)
  wood processing technology.

New Zealand’s forest industry supplies 1.1 percent of world trade and 8.8 percent of Asia Pacific’s forest products trade, from an annual harvest area equivalent to just 0.0009 percent of global forest cover.

Australia is New Zealand’s single largest market for forest products, taking 25 percent of total exports valued at just under $1 billion worth of product (year ended March 2007).

Around 20,000 people are employed in the industry in forestry and first-stage processing.

The long-term strategy for the industry is to create a sustainable wood processing industry that can capture greater value from New Zealand’s forest resource by investing in further processing in New Zealand or through greater integration with international value chain partners.