At the Wood Marketing Federation annual conference on Wednesday, speakers outlined the challenges and opportunities facing the sector over the next 20 years.

COFORD forecast significant growth in this period, with annual production increasing from 4.5m cubic metres to 7.9m cubic metres. Of course, this will not be realised without overcoming many of the challenges that lie ahead – one of which was highlighted as being the growth in private forestry and the challenges around ensuring proper forest management and efficient harvesting of timber across a much more fragmented land base.

One solution to this was presented by Alex Kelly, manager of Irish Wood Producers, an organisation in the southeast which brings farmers together to promote best practice and develop an organised approach to harvesting and timber sales. It’s a model that could work in other sectors. There is no doubt that our climate combined with the level of investment in the processing sector presents a real opportunity for some farmers to add value to their farm with forestry.

The new Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Andrew Doyle, has identified the potential to convert 500,000ha into forestry without any impact on our food production capacity. He now has the opportunity to turn this potential into reality for the betterment of farm incomes and the national economy.