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Plantation forests are located throughout New Zealand. The Central North Island is the hub of the industry with a third of the plantation estate, but major new areas such as Northland, East Coast (NI), Nelson/Marlborough and Otago/Southland planted in 1970s are now ready to harvest.
Since 2003 there have been large scale changes to the ownership of plantation forests in New Zealand, with international timber management organisations (TIMO's) the most active buyers.
| Major Plantation Forest Ownership (04/05) |
| Owner/Manager |
Planted Area (ha)
- Round Figures |
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| Carter Holt Harvey |
221,000 |
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| Kaingaroa Timberlands |
165,000 |
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| Rayonier-Deutsche Asset Management |
143,000 |
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| Hancock Natural Resource Group |
107,000 |
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| Ernslaw One |
86,000 |
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| Weyerhauser New Zealand |
64,000 |
|
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| Juken Nissho |
55,000 |
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| Crown Forestry |
42,000 |
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| Pan Pac Forest Products |
32,000 |
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| Blakely Pacific |
28,000 |
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| Timberlands West Coast |
27,000 |
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| Hikurangi Forest Farms |
27,000 |
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| Global Forest Partners |
27,000 |
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| Wenita Forests Products |
25,000 |
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| Roger Dickie New Zealand |
24,000 |
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| Forest Enterprises |
22,000 |
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Evergreen/James Feilding Funds Management
Winstone Pulp International
City Forests
Selwyn Plantation Board
GSL Capital
Other (includes farm forestry) |
21,000
17,000
15,000
13,000
11,000
663,000 |
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| Total planted production forest area: |
1,822,000 ha |
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| (Source: MAF/NEFD)
Harvest Levels
New Zealand's log harvest has quadrupled in the last 30 years from five million m3 in 1968, to over 21 million m3 in 2004. Almost all of this is attributable to plantation forestry and a series of large scale planting programmes in the 1960s and 70s.
Exports
Log exports are the most significant in terms of volume but lumber is of greater value, both in terms of export value and indirect value to the country through the creation of jobs. Pulp, newsprint and particleboard are other significant export products of high value.
New Zealand exports forest products mainly to countries around the Pacific. Australia is the most important export market for lumber, paper, and paperboard production. Japan, Korea and the USA are the other significant export destinations.
Employment
The industry has always been an important source of employment in New Zealand. Some 23,000 people were employed in the forestry and primary processing industries in 2004. It is estimated that for every full-time job created in forestry and wood processing between 2.2 and 5.8 jobs are created outside the industry.
Forestry contributes about 3.1% of national GDP and earns about 11% of export receipts.
Wood Processing
There is a well-distributed network of wood processing facilities around the country. These produce wood products for both domestic and export markets, with about one-third of the harvest eventually being used inside New Zealand. This proportion will alter even further in favour of export markets as harvest levels increase.
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