Tree farming is already a low-risk, highly profitable industry in many developing countries, including India, South Africa, and Ethiopia. On the global scale, timber prices have increased steadily for over a century, and demand for timber is projected to continue to rise significantly. At the same time, tremendous pressure is being placed on timber suppliers, who struggle to find renewable sources of wood.
This wood was imported at a high expense
from Zimbabwe
The timber market in Kenya provides the ideal environment for KOMAZA to promote and develop sustainable forestry. The overall demand for wood in East Africa is approximately 117 million cubic meters per year. This far outstrips the sustainable supply in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. On Kenya's coast, for example, most of the available timber is imported from other countries. Since timber is relatively expensive to transport, KOMAZA's lower transportation costs will make us highly competitive on the Kenyan market.
Our research indicates a substantial and growing demand for timber products throughout Kenya. Roughly 35 million new trees are planted in Kenya every year, but future demand will require 60-200 million trees annually. Eucalyptus trees can be processed into all of the major timber products in demand by Kenyans—fuel wood, charcoal, building poles, sawn lumber and electricity poles. The combined domestic market for these products is over $850 million. In KOMAZA's current area of operations on the Kenyan coast, we have already identified over 20 vendors interested in purchasing and processing our timber.
The timber market offers a valuable opportunity that KOMAZA, in partnership with our farm families, is in an ideal position to seize. Entering this high-profit market with our farmers is an ideal way to address the social need to dramatically boost income of the rural poor while also addressing the environmental need for timber that is produced sustainably.
