Kumasi (Ashanti), 16 Feb. '99 -

Ghana earned 171 million dollars from the export of 415,700 cubic metres of timber and wood products last year, a Forest Products Inspection Bureau (FPIB) report has indicated. This showed an increase of three per cent in value and a decrease of six percent in volume over the 1997 exported value of about 170.5 million dollars from 442,078 cubic metres, indicating that the government's policy of adding value to timber is on course. The FPIB export permit report released for last December indicated a recorded value of about 15 million dollars from 36,475 cubic metres of wood products representing 1.7 per cent increase in value and 2.5 per cent increase in volume over that of November last year.

The report said comparatively, figures achieved last year for veneers, kiln dried lumber, and other tertiary wood products such as furniture parts, profile boards, dowels and broomsticks showed appreciable increases over 1997. It said "this was in conformity with the Government's policy to encourage downstream processing and export of value-added products", adding, "the year ended with signs of positive development in the timber industry". During the year under review, the major wood products exported was kiln dried lumber which recorded about 46 million dollars, in value followed by air dried lumber about 44.6 million dollars and veneers about 45 million dollars. Others were furniture parts about eight million dollars, dowels about 1.1 million dollars, profile boards about 740,277 dollars, broomsticks about 170,157 dollars and curls about 498,849 dollars. It said a major destination for Ghana's Wood Products were Germany, Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, USA and France. Others were Belgium, Holland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Hong Kong and Burkina Faso.