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New Zealand has been able to adopt a strong marketing stance in most export markets because of its ability to source large quantities of good quality softwood timber from sustainably grown plantation forests.
However, it is not the only country with a plantation-style forest industry. Chile, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Australia all have extensive plantings of fast growing species (hardwood and softwood). In the Northern Hemisphere the Scandinavian countries have all expanded their forests or controlled the cut in the interests of future production expansion.
In recent years, Russia has become one of the world’s biggest suppliers of indigenous timber – harvested from vast and previously untapped reserves from its sub-Arctic forests. Russia is now supplying most of China’s rapidly increasing timber needs.
All of those countries (and many others) compete with New Zealand in at least some of its markets. Then there are the wood 'substitutes' like steel framing for houses which further underline the necessity for globally competitive wood processing and marketing strategies. This is being actively done through co-operative ventures such as market development initiatives by New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the industry associations and various private companies, and by lobbying for removal of barriers to trade and tariffs through the World Trade Organisation.
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