The New Zealand forestry industry looks set to introduce a levy on harvested forest products next year now that 80 per cent of the industry has given support to the proposal.

'We have been given the thumbs-up to introduce a funding system that will provide greater certainty, equity and commitment for activities that benefit all growers, such as research, promotion and forest health,” says Forest Growers Levy Trust chair Geoff Thompson.

'At this stage, we expect the levy to be introduced on January 1, 2014.”
The audited referendum results reveal that 502 growers (86.3 per cent) voted yes and 80 (13.7 per cent) voted no. There was the same percentage of support when the votes were weighted by area, with 947,762.71 hectare (86.3 per cent) in favour and 149,926.91 ha (13.7 per cent) opposed. Geoff says having identical percentages for voters and area was 'simply a fluke”.
Under the Commodity Levies Act, for the levy to proceed it must have the support by number and by area of more than 50 per cent of those forest owners who voted.
The trust believes the turnout was about 15 per cent of an estimated 4000 eligible voters. Their votes represented more than two-thirds of the eligible forest area.
'This was quite a good turnout, compared with other recent primary sector referenda.
'The key message is that those who will be paying the vast majority of the levy are strongly in favour of it. This is the green light we had to see before we progressed any further. Now we can get on with groundwork and consultation that is still needed before we can ask the Minister for Primary Industries to put a levy order in place.”
Assessing the turnout was complicated by the fact that only those forest owners who own a plantation forest 10 years or older in age, and at least four hectare in area, were eligible to vote.
'Based on national age class statistics for forests, between 3095 and 5095 forest owners (a mean of 4000) could fall into this category. This is a generous estimate, given that only 350-400 forest owners harvest in any one year and that only 1838 forest owners are listed on the Ministry for Primary Industries national database.
'We need to bear in mind that the owners of many small farm forests will not have been motivated to vote. Also positive votes have been received from some owners where a single vote was for forests on many properties.”
The month-long referendum was conducted for the trust by Research New Zealand, which has audited a random sample of votes, as well as the final results. Their audit report is posted on the Forest Voice website.
Priorities for the trust include on-going communication with potential levy payers, further consultation with data collection agents, an application to the Minister for a levy order, trialling and implementation of the levy collection system, and a transition from the board that organised the referendum, to one representing levy payers.
The ForestVoice website: www.forestvoice.org.nz will continue to update the forest industry on levy progress.