Festival to show off innovation in forestry industry

Lockwood Group will stage a design and building showcase. Photo / Supplied

Showing there is more to this country's multibillion-dollar wood industry than growing trees and shipping logs abroad is one of the aims of a nationwide festival taking place during the Rugby World Cup.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's Winning With Wood festival will showcase genetics, harvesting, wood drying and processing equipment, transport services, wood fibre-based biotech, timber construction, manufactured wood products, architecture and design.

"The main goal is to demonstrate to our international visitors and to a certain extent our New Zealand audience that we have amazing innovation across the whole wood and forest sector value chain," said NZTE Bay of Plenty regional manager Lionel Crawley.

A number of events - including conferences, exhibitions, displays and competitions - will take place in Rotorua in the leadup to the city's first World Cup game (Fiji vs Namibia) on September 10.

Nearby Kawerau's Woodfest will kick off on Friday featuring the national wood skills competition and chainsaw carving.

Lockwood Group will mark its 60th anniversary by staging a residential design and building showcase in Rotorua, with timber decking specialist Verda, during the festival.

The National Wood Innovation Showcase will run at 26 sites across the country from Kerikeri to Gore, between September 5 and October 22.

As well, the NZ Wood Timber Design Awards will take place in Auckland on October 11.

"[The festival] is about celebrating the fact that we're not just good at growing forests - we've got innovation from the way we plant trees right through to adding value into innovative wood products," said Crawley.

The forestry industry generates about $4 billion in export revenue annually.