IFA: Forestry has potential to inject €50m into local communities

FORESTRY has the potential to inject €50m annually into local communities, according to IFA president John Bryan.

The farm group leader was speaking at yesterday’s IFA Farm Forestry Conference in Portlaoise, Co Laois. He said private sector timber production could increase to one million cubic metres per annum by 2018. Timber production from the private sector is currently at 200,000m³.

Forestry is now part of the general farm business for more than 16,000 farmers and the private forest sector accounts for nearly 50% of the national estate.