Regional Minister of Labor Links Closure of Sawmills to Decrease in Wood Theft: Asked Not to Generalize
The National Association of Small and Medium-Sized Wood Industrialists warned about the crisis affecting the forestry sector, which has resulted in the closure of sawmills, layoffs, and impoverishment of the industry. Regarding this, the Regional Minister of Labor of Bío Bío, Sandra Quintana, attributed this situation to the decrease in the crime of wood theft.
The government authority stated that the industry is facing a structural problem that was exacerbated by the pandemic. But she also pointed to the illegal sale of wood.
She explained that the irregular sale of wood allowed many sawmills to survive. "Much of these people who were selling irregular wood no longer had the same production, and sales dropped," she stated. "The irregularity with which the sale of wood was being operated also allowed many of these sawmills to survive well, to be in good condition. However, later when the monitoring was effectively applied and the corresponding investigations were carried out on many of these people who were selling wood irregularly, evidently they no longer had the same production, and and then the thing is, sales drop," she affirmed.
Michel Esquerré, national president of PymeMad, responded to Regional Minister Quintana, indicating that one cannot generalize and say that sawmills bought stolen wood. Furthermore, he specified that "wood theft fostered informality and unfair competition." "One cannot generalize that all sawmills buy wood. That is not not not true. The crisis of the industry transcends the current government. It is a systemic failure of the State, due to the lack of promotion of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) plantations, not modifying the SME classification systems. We are not talking about entering into political contingency with the Regional Minister, it makes no sense, because we are not talking about a political issue, we are talking about technical issues. Furthermore, wood theft fostered informality and and unfair competition," he emphasized.
The Regional Minister confirmed that they have verified the closure of sawmills and that they have worked on the impact of this measure in two companies, one in the province of Bío Bío and another in Arauco.
She also indicated that they must wait for the results of the reforestation plan promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, which is not a short-term matter.
Source:BiobioChile
