(stock photo)Pallet producers have warned junior agriculture minister Pippa Hackett that a looming shortage of Irish wood could lead to chaos and shortages for exporters here. The warning comes as concern grows in the forestry sector over an inability to supply customers with timber because of hold ups in the planning have caused a major backlog in felling license applications. The alert from the pallet sector was contained in a detailed submission to Hackett from Timcon, the UK-based industry body that represents the major manufacturers in the sector both in Ireland and the UK. More than 8,000 Irish exporters use pallets for their goods and the combined turnover of Irish pallet manufacturers is approximately €130m. Timcon's UK members were already starting to report lead times for pallet timber as stretching out to six to 10 weeks.

Source: Irish Independent September 13, 2020 01:30 UTC