If Canadian forest companies want to compete in the global marketplace they need to embrace the coming “bio-age.”
This according to a Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) study published Thursday, which explained how the sector can become a pivotal player in the marketplace if it invests in bio-energy, bio-chemical products and bio-materials.
“The key to survival is extracting more value from every tree harvested,” FPAC president and CEO Avrim Lazar said in an interview with Business in Vancouver.
The New Face of the Canadian Forest Industry: the Emerging Bio-Revolution study is the second phase of a comprehensive investigation that focuses on opportunities to produce a wide range of bio-products from wood fibre.
The first phase of the study was released a year ago.
It focused on the economic, social and environmental benefits of blending new bio-products with the traditional forest industry.
This latest part of the study examined the market potential of emerging technologies.
Lazar told BIV that the market for bio-products is expected to total $200 billion by 2015 compared with approximately $50 billion today.
Those wood-fibre markets include everything from power generation to products such as food additives, bulletproof vests, airplane wings, clothing and even tires.
Lazar said although the new technologies can’t replace traditional lumber and pulp products, they can bolster a company’s bottom line during tough times.
“It’s very hard to make a living harvesting trees and then turning them into chemicals and energy, but if you harvest trees and turn them into lumber and chips for pulp and energy and new bio-materials you have a very robust economic base.”