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Guyana’s forest products exporters cannot compete effectively on the world market as individuals since the country does not have the volume of timber to allow for such a scenario.Yesterday, Minister of Agriculture with responsibilities for Forestry, Robert Persaud said that the sector needs to put its ‘pettiness’ aside and move forward as a collective body since failing to do this will result in the globalised world leaving Guyana behind.Persaud made the statement while addressing a gathering at the launching of the Forest Products Development and Marketing Council Inc (FPDMC) at the Guyana Forestry Commission office,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, recently.Persaud said that some time last year, there was an active move by the Guyana Forestry Commission to create clusters within the sector but that was met with a limited degree of success.“We need to recognise that as a country our annual production is less than 500,000 cubic meters. There is always a degree of distrust and pettiness and it is very difficult to bring the grouping together and effectively have clusters…we do hope that the new council will aggressively address this situation.”About three years ago, Persaud said, the Forest Products Marketing Council was launched based on the recommendation by International Tropical Timber Organisation.As such, a five-year business plan was developed, examining the industry development, marketing intelligence research, quality assurance, market promotion, branding and training.The track record of the Forest Products and Marketing Council (FPMC) has been a mixed one, Persaud said.“There have been some successes and there have been some concerns but after a thorough review we saw that the concerns were overwhelming and we needed to stop and look at what we were doing and to see how it is that we can improve our performance.”Based on consultation, there was clearly a need to change aspects of body and on recommendations of the Memorandum of Understanding that came out of the Committee’s deliberations, there was a suggestion for a new entity to be created, namely the Forest Products Development and Marketing Council.“What we found in the former arrangement (FPMC) was that there was over marketing and due attention in the area of product development or ensuring that we add the supplies to take care of the various market needs was not there…we saw a trend that we were running ahead of our capacity to supply the market .”This new Council, the Minister said, has an enlarged mandate to include industry and product development, taking into account the emerging needs of the industry.The Minister pointed out that there has been some inadequacies in some of the practices in the industry, especially in the areas of operations.Skilled workers are another issue that needs to be addressed by the new council.The new council, Persaud said yesterday, needs to look at the fall out from the current financial melt down in the United States, and assess the impact it will that have on the forestry sector in terms of trade.“Will we see a reduced demand? Will we then have to look at new markets?” he said are questions the council needs to examine.He added that the possible effects of the melt down on the local market have already captivated the attention of the administration.“I would encourage the council to deliberate and to study this because they need to plan ahead and look at other options should there be a slow down in demands from a particular market.”Earlier in the launching, Former Chairman of Barama Company Limited, Girwar Lalaram, had said that the taxes on log export should be channeled as a development fund for specific purpose in the areas such as upgrading technology, research and development, to bring improvements in the industry.Addressing this call, Persaud said that the two percent commission that is charged on export goes towards managing the forestry sector.This fund, he added, will be used to finance the FPDMC, which cost the GFC at least $32M per annum.He said that he had previously asked the industry to take over the FPMC but because of certain factors and based on the unwillingness by the industry, a decision was taken to have the GFC continue to finance the council. The Minister noted that whenever the industry is ready to fully take over and finance the council, then GFC is willing to let them do such.The new council consists of eleven members, five of which are from the private forestry sector, five from the government and one independent person.This council will serve for two years.The members of the council are Saykar Boodhoo, Colin Andrews, Ronald Bulkan, S.K. Chan, Girwar Lalaram, Nizam Hassan, James Singh, Edward Goberdhan, Geoff Da Silva and Merlin Udho. But even as the council gets underway, Girwar Lalaram, a member of the new body and former chairman of Barama Company Ltd stated some major concerns of the industry.In his remarks to the gathering, he pointed out that chainsaw operators and community forestry need to be regulated and monitored if any objectives are to be achieved.Another major concern, he added, is mining activities within the many concessions.These activities are destroying the environment by contaminating water among other health risks.There is need for a more comprehensive working plan to ensure that mining activities are regulated and monitored strictly, Lalaram added.The forestry resources account for 4.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as direct employment for more than 26,000 persons.(Tusika Martin)