British Columbia has broken another record in lumber exports to China this year, with shipments already surpassing 2010’s record total. According to the latest international merchandise trade data released by Statistics Canada, lumber exports over the first eight months of the year from BC to China, including Hong Kong, were $746 million. For all of 2010, BC’s lumber exports to the country were worth $687 million.
BC’s success with lumber exports to China is partly a result of a trilateral provincial-federal-industry effort to focus on the China market that started in 2003, and included the establishment of a Chinese subsidiary of Forestry Innovation Investment, the province’s market development agency for forest products. The agency has offices in Shanghai and Beijing.