The growth potential of the Irish forest foliage sector has been outlined at a two-day conference organised by the National Council for Forest Research and Development (COFORD).
Research by Kerry-based Forest Produce Ltd and Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has revealed that commercial forests can produce “sizable quantities of foliage bringing a return to the grower at a far earlier stage in the crop cycle”.
GMIT’s Amy Costello told delegates at the conference that forests constituting western hemlock, larch, birch and alder could produce returns of €400 per ha.
“The research that COFORD is funding and the work of companies such as West Cost Forestry, which is now supplying an annual export market of 400,000 stems of lodgepole pine to the UK market, shows the very significant potential that exists for forest foliage,” said John Fennessy of COFORD.
