Sawmillers lobby seeks fair tendering - kenyadetails

Small sawmillers have formed an association to enable them push for fair awarding of logging tenders in gazetted forests by the Kenya Forest Service.

The Timber Traders Association, made up of members who have decamped  from the chief Timber Manufacturers Association, targets to register more than 1,000 members across the country.

“We feel Timber Manufacturers Association has failed in its objective to fight for the rights of the small sawmillers and that is why we want to revive our efforts to negotiate for better terms with the Kenya Forest Service,” said the Timber Traders Association chairman Towett Kimaiyo.

Their mission, Mr Kimaiyo said, is pegged on their need to have equal consideration as the big sawmillers in the distribution of acreages of trees for harvest.

The small scale timber traders have protested outright bias in the provision of tenders for logging matured trees.

“This is something we have complained about for a long time. When it comes to the well-established sawmillers, they are quickly permitted to harvest many acres of plantations but small sawmillers are taken round and round,” added Mr Kimaiyo.

Already, KFS has advertised for logging tenders limited to harvesting mature exotic trees and electricity poles in the gazetted forests across the country.

Only experienced sawmillers with a past record in harvesting of electricity transmission poles would be considered in the tendering process, KFS director David Mbugua had specified in the advertisement.

To end the allocation clamour, Mr Mbugua said KFS will be engaging with other forest stakeholders in establishing a policy that will provide a clear cut framework on equal distribution of mature plantations for harvesting.

KFS allows harvesting of mature pine and cypress trees in the gazetted forests as long as the tendered sawmillers provide a record of their ongoing work on tree nurseries and rehabilitation of forests.

This is meant to maintain at par the pace of deforestation and reafforestation. KFS determines the price tag depending on the age of the tree.

“Usually, they allow harvesting of trees more than 20 years. For a 20-year pine or cypress, its Sh3,000.

“A 35-year-old tree costs Sh4,000 while a 45-year-old tree goes for a price ranging between Sh5,000 to Sh6,000,” explained Mr Kimaiyo.

A tonne of either pine or cypress, according to Mr Kimaiyo, is supposed to go for between Sh46,000 to Sh52,000, but due to the existence of the brokers it goes down to Sh32,000 and less.