Zimbabwe’s profits from sawn timber exports grew to US$17.4m in 2004 from US$13m last year, according to the country’s Timber Producers’ Federation.
Sawn timber exports totalled 136,150m3, up from 125,254m3 in 2003, with South Africa taking the lion’s share of the wood.
The federation said a further US$5.7m was earned from about 20,000m3 of domestically processed timber.
It said sawn timber production last year was the lowest since 1993, due to mature log shortages, weak demand, industrial action and forest fires, while new financial controls have forced the construction industry into recession and impacted negatively on value-added operations.
