Canada International Trade Minister Ed Fast welcomed the business delegation of 60 buyers from China and said we would like to make further efforts to increase timber exports to China during the 10th Annual Global Buyers Mission On September 6, in Whistler, British Columbia,
Canada is now China’s largest supplier of imported lumber and among the fastest-growing markets for Canadian wood products. The value of Canadian wood exports to China has increased more than 10 times in the last five years, to over $1.4 billion in 2012.
Our export of Canadian wood and wood product to China is being facilitated by the Government of Canada strategic investment and partnerships in building the Asia-Pacific Gateway infrastructure. To date, we have invested over $ 1. 4 billion in projects that are making it easier, faster and more efficient for our exporters to reach the Chinese market. In fact, Canada’s west coast ports are more than two days closer to Asia than any other ports in North America
West Fraser, one of Canada's largest lumber producers, began exporting more of its production to the Asia-Pacific region after 2007, vice-president Chris McIver says the Vancouver-based company has shifted its sales efforts inland from China's coastal markets because it believes there's still plenty of demand for lumber. Compared with five to eight per cent of lumber export to China, Japan and Korea in 2007, current already increased to 30 per cent of Canadian lumber production exported to main Asian countries. However, Canada faces a shortage of skilled trade’s people that is expected to grow as the population ages. For example, over the next seven years, the construction sector alone is projecting a need for 319,000 new workers. Skilled trade’s people support economic growth across the country.
The growth of timber product exports to overseas destinations, most notably China, has high employment opportunities’