30% wood harvest expansion projected for Chile

Chile’s forestry industry could increase wood production over 30% in the next fifteen years, as the sector significantly expands its land holdings, Hans Grosse, head of state forestry agency Instituto Forestal (Infor), said. The nation’s forestry sector, which produces 8% of the world’s wood pulp, currently owns 2.3 million hectares of plantations. Expansions could include the acquisition of 7.5 million hectares of native forest and the addition of two to three million hectares of new plantations. Wood production may increase to 50 million cubic meters by 2025, up from a current harvest of 38 million cubic meters, as a result of the expansions. Infor said that Chile’s forestry exports, which amounted to $4.2 billion in 2009, could total some $7.3 billion to $9.6 million per year in ten years’ time.