The United Kingdom is looking to expand its trade into mahogany timbers and is now eyeing Fiji as a growing market to supply tropical hardwoods in the UK and across Europe. That is according to Dr Brian Jones, British High Commissioner, who said the time for Fijian landowners to seize the opportunity and provide high-value timbers has arrived.
“So just after the colonial period (1970), one of the last projects that started was to plant mahogany forests across Fiji,” Dr Jones said. “There are now 14 that are reaching maturity.”
“That is very valuable wood on the global market.”
Dr Brian Jones, British High Commissioner, who said UK companies are ready and able to assist Fiji in lifting mahogany production.
According to Manoa Kamikamica, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, investing in agricultural assets – like mahogany timbers – is key as Fiji diversifies outside tourism: “We’ll do the best we can to support it.”
“We have a big agenda in terms of economic diversification,” the Deputy Prime Minister today told the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC News). “We’re keen to engage and are happy that there’s a constant flow of investor interest in the country.”
It comes after Wood Central revealed that Fiji is working alongside Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu to develop a new Pan-Pacific Standard for Sustainable Forest Management, which would see the region protect 2 million hectares of forest area and provide the Asia Pacific region with access to AU $1 billion of certified products – creating a “green lane” for tropical timbers to be traded around the world.
Already, the Fiji Hardwood Corporation Ltd (FHCL)—which manages more than 75,000 hectares of mahoney across the country—sells more than 38,000 cubic metres of mahoney into global markets every year – with Dr Jones confident production could lift “with the commission ready to help” invest in plant and equipment.
- To learn more about the mahoney opportunity in Fiji, click here for Wood Central’s special feature from May 2023.
