12-17 IAN Wood Exports

 A lot of Idaho lumber is headed to Asia. But not just a blanket statement Asia in general, it turns out that there are specific tastes for our lumber in specific countries. I’m DSThere is very good news here in Idaho as it relates to the lumber industry.Here’s Jeffery Sayer, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce:“Our team has gone to great lengths to help facilitate trade missions into the Asian markets specifically for our lumber companies and they have talked about the great success that most companies have in some of the Asian markets. It is interesting that it is the Vietnam’s, the Koreas, the others the non-China Asian countries that seem to really embrace Idaho lumber and the conversations that we have had is those have been successful arenas for them to sell lumber into where China has been a little bit tricky because the China consumers seem to be focused on cost and are not willing to pay for higher-margin and higher quality product where those other countries are. So there has been a little bit of strategy underneath all of that to make sure that we fine tune andl help them find those markets that are willing to pay the higher margins and once they have found them they have enjoyed great success. It has helped them be successful and it has helped save Idaho jobs which is best of both worlds.