SARAWAK has notified the “big 6” timber companies it is moving towards a ban on export of logs.

Deputy Chief Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said while the state government has yet to set a date for when the ban will take effect, it can be expected to happen “soon”.

The timber export ban was originally set to be introduced 2022, in conjunction with the deadline for companies awarded long-term timber licences to have the mandatory Forest Management Certification (FMC).

“(It’s) difficult to set a deadline,” said Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister of Natural Resources, at the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) monthly assembly in Petra Jaya.

“But we have reduced it (the export) gradually. We have to give the industry players time to make adjustments. It’s not fair to them if we don’t.”

Awang Tengah said the timber companies needed time to make the transition from delivering raw timber to converting the logs into high value-added products, such as furniture, for export.

He said Sarawak wished to tap into the market for such high value-added products.

He pointed to the potential in furniture export which is a US$130 billion (RM534 billion) business globally in 2017.

Sarawak in 2017 exported a mere RM47 million worth of furniture, he said.

“There is a huge potential in furniture globally that’s still untapped.”

The export limit for logs is 20% of the state’s 5 million cubic metre annual timber harvest.

Earlier in his address, Awang Tengah said the ban was also in line with the state’s policy on sustainable development in view of the depleting production of logs from the natural forest.

The future growth of the state’s timber industry will depend less on logs from the natural forest and more on forest plantations, Awang Tengah.

Sarawak aims to have a million square metres of industrial forest by 2020, and an expectation to generate 15-20 million cubic metres of timber to support downstream industry.

Sarawak is “still very far away” from achieving the target,” Awang Tengah said.

“The progress of planting has been too slow,” he said.

He said the target date had been moved to 2025.

He said as of June last year, just over 420,000 hectares, of 41% of the target, had been planted.

“The industry is not getting the (raw) materials that they have been waiting for since the government started ITP programme in 1997.

“I have directed the Forestry Department to seriously look into this problem.”

Awang Tengah said this was critical as a gradual reduction in the production of logs from the natural forest means the industrial planted forests will become the main source of raw materials for processing in Sarawak. – January 17, 2019.