Timber Merchants Weep Over Hardship In The Industry

Ghana makes over 23 million annually from timber and wood products but some timber merchants claim they are not enjoying these dividends.

Timber merchants say they are unable to benefit from the booming industry due to counter-productive levies, price hikes, illegal police activities among others.

Some of them say they have to deal with about seven checkpoints a day, where they have to pay various amounts to police personnel.

At the timber market in Accra, one of the merchants told Citi TV that in times past, business was “up and down” but of late “it is worse.”

Another dealer also complained about the lopsided competition with exporters and foreign nationals.

“We [local timber merchants] are getting the scraps… when you look at the quality of what comes to the market, and the quality of what they are exporting, we are getting the scraps. We are not getting high-quality [timber].”

The low-quality wood is not even enough for them, some of the merchants said.

“We have just been managing… Now when the wood comes, you have to scramble.”

The timber and wood product dealers also complained about supposed corruption at the Forestry Commission.

“Where the Forestry [Commission] people usually create a hindrance for you is that you have all your documents and they tell you these documents are not genuine… then they will pack your truck or seize the wood and you have to prove it.”

One revealed that the Commission seizes both legal and illegal lumber, and that “the same wood that has been seized on the way finds its way back to the market.”