Plant inspectors from China will visit Alaska in late April to do site inspections of log sources, a move that could greatly improve the bottom line for the state's timber exporters, state officials said.
Chinese officials want assurances that Alaska timber harbors no pinewood nematodes, microscopic roundworms that invade the stems and branches of pines, causing sudden wilt and death of the trees, irrespective of their age or size, said Jack Phelps, a state forest products development specialist.
Phelps, a former executive director of the Alaska Forest Association, said to his knowledge, the critter has never taken root in Alaska's forests. Still, Chinese officials have a legitimate concern, because pinewood nematodes would be devastating to China's forests, he said.
If site inspections by the Chinese inspectors confirm the absence of such danger, profit margins for Alaska exporters stand to greatly increase, along with increased export of lower grades of wood, Phelps said.
The value of Alaska's log exports to China more than doubled in 2005 to $7.6 million, according to state officials. Phelps said most of the spruce and hemlock logs were purchased through two Alaska Native-owned corporations, Sealaska Corp. and Koncor Forest Products.
Up to now, log exports from Alaska destined for China have gone through an interim staging area in Japan before heading to their final destination, a move that greatly increases costs for exporters, Phelps said. The transshipment process also makes it uneconomical to ship lower grades of timber, he said.
The Chinese officials' visit is a requirement of a recent agreement negotiated by U.S. and Chinese phytosanitary officials regarding Alaska logs.
The agreement allows Alaska forest product companies to export unfumigated logs to China in a more cost-effective way than in the past. Because of the agreement, Alaska logs are now being fumigated at a unique log treatment facility in the Chinese municipality of Putian in Fugian province. The Putian facility reduces transportation and fumigation costs for Alaska producers.
"With the transshipment costs, there wasn't enough margin in lower-grade logs to be able to ship them," Phelps said.Anchorage Daily News
