Fiji Pine Limited will plant more pine on more than 2, 500 hectares worth land around the country later this year.
Fiji Pine Limited executive chairman Faiz Khan says this has been a normal trend over the years and Fiji Pine is hoping for favourable weather conditions to achieve its targets.
“As always, we have a forecast to plant a further 2, 500 hectares of new pine this year but that depends on the weather which we are hoping will be in our favour,” he said.
“However, that being said, we are not only working towards this achievement but also ensuring that we improve our yields.”
The industry, which is the largest lease holder in the country, paid a total of $2.9 million directly to landowners in 2013 alone. In addition $17.3 million was invested by the company to carry out replanting and logging operations to ensure the sustainability of the pine industry.
“We have noted a windfall in revenue in 2013 thus the bonus payment and it is only our confidence in the industry that we continue to better results,” Mr Khan said.
“2014 was a very successful year in which we are contemplating a huge profit and this is a massive turnaround for the company which was in debt.”
The company in the last three and a half years has managed to renew 18,200 hectares of expiring leases and continues to invest back in the industry to maintain consistency and growth.
DEPTFO