ITC Slams Scare Campaign on Plantations

27 November 2007
Victorian-based sawmiller ITC Ltd has paid $16.5 million for a 1725 ha beef cattle property at Lakeland Downs in Far North Queensland as part of continuing expansion of its plantation forestry estate in the region.
ITC owns and manages more than 150,000 ha of plantations across all states and has a solid wood conversion capacity of 250,000 cub m a year.
Chief executive officer Vince Erasmus has rejected as totally incorrect the assertion by some, including peak Queensland rural lobby group Agforce, that ITC purchased the property at a price inflated beyond other agricultural uses.
AgForce Cattle president Greg Brown claims managed investment schemes (MIS) can push average producers out of the property market by paying up to five times what land is valued for agricultural purposes.
Erasmus said market forces determined the best use of agricultural land and its effective value, whether the purchaser intended to use it for cropping, cattle or tree farming.
“To suggest that land prices are being distorted because a tree farmer rather than a cattle farmer purchases a property is wrong, irresponsible and demonstrates a total lack of commercial thinking,” he said.
“The acquisition of land is a capital expense for ITC, which is purchased from its own resources. The company has access to funding sources similar to any other prospective purchaser and potential sites must satisfy a range of criteria relating to silvicultural capacity and economic return, before ITC will consider bidding to purchase.”

EWPAA President Re-elected

New Zealander Rene de Vries, site manger at CHH Wood Products at Mount Maunganui, was e-elected for his second term as president of the Engineered Wood Products Association of Australasia at the annual conference this month. Ben Sawley of Boral Hancock Plywood, Ipswich, Qld, was elected vice-president.
Directors appointed for 2007-2008 are: Stuart Matthews, Austral Plywoods (treasurer), Tony Honey, PNG Forest Products, Jim Bindon, Big River Timbers (alternate Rob DeMarco, Ausply), Ron Cortis, Brown Wood Panels, Brendan Smith, Juken New Zealand, Richard Barry, Nelson Pine Industries, James Malone, Wesbeam (alternate Peter Law, Wesbeam), Gary Brown, Hexion Specialty Chemicals NZ.

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