Ghana earned about 169 million Euro from the export of 437,000 cubic metres of timber and wood products between January and November last year.

This was contained in a report on Export of Wood Products released by the Timber Industry Development Division.

The report said within the same period in 2001, 171 million Euro was realised from the export of 438,000 cubic metres of timber and wood products.

It said this meant that there was a decrease of one percent in earnings.

The report said about 61 percent of the value of export of timber and wood products for January to November 2002 were realised from export to Europe.

From January to November 2001, 64 percent of the total value was realised from export to Europe.

The report said the country's wood products were also exported to Asia and the Far East, Africa, Middle East, America and Oceania.

The report said the decline of export of timber and wood products was due to increase in utility tariffs, difficulty in securing logs and other inputs owing to high cost and export levies on some timber and wood products.

It said the levies had been instituted to encourage the export of value added timber and wood products.

Senegal was the leading importer of timber and wood products from Ghana in the ECOWAS sub-region. Other ECOWAS countries that import timber and wood products from the country, include Togo, Niger, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria and Liberia.

The report said Ceiba is the predominant species exported in various products followed by Wawa.