The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
THE country’s timber producing industry has hit an all time low of 20 to 40 percent capacity utilisation level amid genuine fears that shortage of the product might be experienced by 2025, the Timber Producers Federation chief executive Mr Darlington Duwa has said.
Capacity utilisation is a measure of the extent to which the productive capacity of a business is being used and it can be defined as the percentage of total capacity that is actually being achieved in a given period.
In an interview early this week, Mr Duwa confirmed that the industry has hit an all time low of 20 to 40 percent capacity utilisation level and there are genuine fears that shortage of timber might be experienced by 2025.
“Capacity utilisation in the timber industry is now between 20 to 40 percent and this is due to a number of challenges that the industry is facing currently.
“If these challenges are not addressed we could start experiencing timber shortage by 2025. Low disposable income, power cuts, unavailability of fuel, foreign currency shortages and the new procurement regulations made through the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe are some of the major challenges that the timber industry is facing,” said Mr Duwa.
The Timber Producers Federation chief executive said it is recommended that Government should increase the foreign currency retention period to 90 days.
“There are a number of recommendations that we made to ensure we revive the operations of the timber industry. Among the recommendations is the need to increase the foreign currency retention period to 90 days.
“We also recommend that ZESA should collect all owed amounts to enable it to import power. In the same breadth, we also recommend that adopt the rand. We also think that there is need to improve the ease of business to attract investors as well as tackle corruption. There is also need to address the issue of illegal settlers. The revival of the industry is dependent on the implementation of all these recommendations. The first step should be the creation of a conducive environment for forest operations,” he said.
Meanwhile, speaking at a recent workshop that was organised by the Climate Change Management Department in the Ministry of Lands and supported by the United Nations Development Programme, Mr Duwa said, “Plantations hectarage has declined from 120 000 hectares of commercial timber plantations to 70 000 last year. The general picture is that the area is declining. We do have a temporary unplanted area of 40 000 hectares.
“This is because of numerous challenges which have to do with the economy, shortages of diesel and working capital, among others, including the ease of doing business and veld fires that left large ripe trees burnt. A lot of areas have been damaged and this affected operations. As a result, companies downsized. There are also illegal settlers in our plantations.”
