Managing log supply to Northland mills

22 November 2019

Te Uru Rākau (Forestry New Zealand) is investigating short to medium term opportunities to ease the log supply constraints that are emerging in Northland, and that can be seen on the horizon in several other regions (i.e. over the next 10 years).

Scion was asked to research the potential of warehousing models to support smaller growers to participate more fully in the log market and to improve the supply of key log grades to domestic processors in Northland. The warehousing models ranged from improved data availability and brokerage services through to the aggregation of supply. Scion found that greater supply chain integration could help to meet the demands of processors, apart from those processing pruned grades, as this is a dwindling resource.

Scion set out a graduated set of options that the Crown, with industry input, could adopt to improve the supply situation and industry co-ordination. These measures went from standard contacts, the registering of traders and a forest data warehouse through to support for voluntary and government forward purchasing of stands. While these measures were developed in the Northland context, the intention was that the methodology developed in this project could be implemented across other regions in New Zealand.

Te Uru Rākau has analysed the results and intends to use this information as the basis for an in-depth conversation with processors and log suppliers on practical options to alleviate the forecast supply shortages.

The full report is titled “Managing a steady base flow of log supply to Northland mills and other supply constrained regions, through warehousing models”.