Timber Magnate Wants Ban on Logs Export Lifted
10/8/99
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Title: Timber Magnate Wants Ban on Logs Export Lifted
Source: Ghanaian Chronicle. Distributed via Africa News Online.
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 8, 1999
Byline: Sebastian R. Freiku, Kumasi
Accra (Ghanaian Chronicle, October 8, 1999) - The government has been
asked to lift the temporary ban on the export of round logs in order
to save the timber industry and the trade from collapse.
Okromansah Nana K.A. Aggrey, a former president of the Ghana Timber
Association (GTA) who made the appeal in Kumasi, said following the
20-year-old ban on the export of round logs, the timber industry was
on the verge of total collapse.
Nana Aggrey, who is also the managing director of Kataban Timber
Company, attributed the trend in the timber industry to "wrong
policies" manifested in the government's economy.
According to the timber merchant reasons assigned by the Ministry of
Lands and Forestry for the imposition of the ban, to add value,
create jobs and conserve and protect the forest resources, had not
improved the industry in any way.
Nana Aggrey asked the government to give a meaning to its free market
concept under the economic policy by allowing loggers of the GTA to
market their logs both locally and abroad without control.
"The sale of timber logs should be free and without controls on the
market", he pleaded.
According to him it was most unfair to control the marketing of logs
by loggers who are predominantly Ghanaians.
He explained that the imposition of a ban on the export of round logs
meant tightening loggers hands while sawmillers exploited the
situation to their advantage.
The timber merchant said the wise thing to do in the circumstance is
to regulate and control the exploitation of the forest resources.
Nana Aggrey pointed out further that if local sawmillers complain
that they cannot afford to pay fixed prices as agreed by the T.E.D.B
and F.P.I.B, for the sale of round logs is anything to go by, then it
stood to good reason that loggers of GTA should be allowed under the
free market to export their logs in the name of fair play and
justice.