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EMERGING timber giant Forico says there are huge growth prospects in plantation wood that will boost the entire state's economy.
The Launceston-based company is quietly confident that it can achieve a stringent green environmental tick for its products, helping it reach more markets in northern Asia.
Forico chief executive Bryan Hayes said for the first time in several years there was activity coming back into the industry, with the company looking to expand throughout the North.
The company will be audited in July for its bid to receive Forest Stewardship Council certification for forest management.
The auditors, United Kingdom-based company Soil Association Woodmark, have called for feedback into Forico's practices.
Forico is the state's largest private forest manager, and has set aside 75,000 hectares of native forest into reserves.
"We're very proud of that, so we're quietly confident we'll be able to move through this certification process fairly well and get a positive outcome," Mr Hayes said.
"We think high levels of environmental performance and standards are the key to having a successful business these days," he said.
Mr Hayes said there was room to improve on community relationships.
"Plantation forestry has a pretty big footprint across the landscape and it's important we are dealing honestly and properly with our neighbours and also with the general community," he said.
Mr Hayes said that while he expected contractors would employ more workers over the next 12 months, the largest growth area would be in re-establishing plantations.
"There's virtually been no replanting in Tasmania for probably three or four years," he said.
"There's a huge opportunity right across the North as we increase our harvesting and increase our re-establishment capacities."
The work involves site preparation, cultivating, growing seedlings and planting trees.
"We will have a big spurt over the next couple of years and should see some real impacts in the Tasmanian economy," he said.
Seventy per cent of all wood harvested in Tasmania comes out of plantation - a figure that Mr Hayes said would continue to grow.
"Everybody focuses on native forests and Forestry Tasmania but they lose sight of the fact that it's the plantations that are the engine room of the industry in Tasmania."
He said native forests were insignificant when it came to wood production.
"The reality in Tasmania is the same as the rest of the world - wood production is coming out of plantations.
"People are moving out of native forests - they are being protected, preserved and conserved."