Kota Kinabalu: A Forest Management Unit (FMU) company has offered to sell Sabah Timber Industries Association (STIA) members it’s commercially cultivated teak trees or plantation timber.
Boonrich Sdh Bhd, a company linked to former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Salleh, has 150,000 commercially cultivated teak trees in Lahad Datu and Tawau.
“These trees are least 25 years old. The average volume of these teak trees is 0.8 cubic meters or 120,000 cubic meters for the 150,000 trees,” the firm said in a statement, Monday.
“So far we have no local buyers, hence offering to you and your members.”
The company said they have received a number of overseas buyers from India, Dubai, China and Japan.
“However, all these buyers prefer our teak logs to be exported to them.
“The price offered is on average US$500 per cubic meter. Therefore, our total sale is US$60 million or RM240 million.
“You (STIA) are fully aware that Sabah and the Federal Government had encouraged the cultivation of commercial timber and provided various incentives including RM1 billion in soft loans.
“The Sabah and Federal Government policies and programme was aimed at the forecast that there will be a shortage of natural timber and also to green the world.
“In fact, this is also the policy and programme of the world till this day,” it said.
As far as Boonrich can ascertain, “we are the only company who responded to the Sabah and Federal Government’s call to cultivate commercial timber.
“We earnestly hope that you and your members will purchase our teak trees as surely it is the declared policy of your association to utilise our commercially cultivated timber before you ravage our rainforests. This in view of the outcry by the world about the destruction of remaining rainforests.”
The statement was issued following a report that STIA welcomed Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s recent affirmation that Sabah’s log export ban will be maintained.
However, Hajiji made no mention of whether the continuation of the policy introduced by the previous Warisan-led State Government referred to timber derived from concessions only or applied to those from plantations as well.
Hajiji said the State Government felt the ban was to assist the local timber downstream industry to get access to supply of raw material. It is understood that the previous State Government provided a foreign joint venture in Kota Marudu to continue exporting acacia logs through special permission but not to Boonrich.
On Monday, STIA president Tan Peng Juan was reported as saying that the wise decision to support Sabah-based factories came as a big relief to existing and new investors.
Tan also said long-term confidence in the further development of value adding processing in Sabah has been further strengthened by the announcement.
Boonrich Sdn Bhd, in 2019, sued the Chief Conservator of Forests and the State Government for RM91.6 million over the log export ban.
The company said it suffered huge losses as a result of the ban as it has been unable to sell logs from its own plantation s to ready foreign buyers.
In the suit, it contended that banning the export of logs from Sabah was not only detrimental to the company but also to the Federal and State Governments to earn foreign exchange.
The ban, Boonrich said, also had impact upon the confidence of investors in commercial timber cultivation industry in Malaysia, especially in Sabah.
