Forest products

Dear Editor,
Jamaican Customs opened a shipping container in mid-March and discovered 122kg of cocaine in bags with a consignment of 130 logs. The Guyana Forestry Commission admitted knowledge of this shipment,
apparently associated with a State Forest Permission assigned to Aroaima Forest Producers Association but actually operated by a Chinese national.

Wood costs for the global pulp industry have risen 17 per cent in the past two years, according to market reports.

Global market pulp production increased by seven per cent in 2010, which, in turn, boosted demand for wood raw material and pushed up prices for wood chips and pulp logs in most regions of the world, the Wood Resource Quarterly reported.

The second half of 2010 saw higher-than-anticipated global pulp production, with markets in a stronger position than they had been in the first six months of the year.

Global demand for softwood lumber increased by about 18 percent in 2010. This came after a year when wood consumption worldwide was the lowest it had been in almost 50 years. This upward trend in consumption has continued thus far in 2011, with total volume consumed being more than 20 percent higher than the same period in early 2010, according to the market publication Wood Resource Quarterly.