Teak society to harvest own trees

GIVAGAI Teak Timber Co-operative Society (GTTCS) in the Mekeo area, Central, will soon be the proud owner of a sawmill to harvest its teak trees.
The society was promised K86,000 for the saw mill by the Southern region branch of the Commerce and Industry’s Cooperative Societies.
Regional coordinator Jacob Malai congratulated the society for its efforts to sustain the fledgling industry when he made the pledge for the saw mill.
He said the K86,000 had been approved from the Co-operative Society Unit’s (CSU) revolving fund.
The team from the department learnt that the Givagai society is ready to harvest its first lot of young teak trees for seedlings this month.
Teak is a tree crop which is valued for its fine wood grains for furniture.
The Givagai society is located at Rairai village and is mainly involved in planting and nurturing of teak trees.
The GTTCS was established in 2002 and has a big teak tree plantation and this year, it started nurturing its seedlings for about seven months. About 10,000 are now ready to harvest for seedlings.
The chairman of GTTCS Gabriel Ivagai thanked the department for its assistance and informed the team that the teak plantation is expanding and getting bigger and better as years go by.
The saw mill will be purchased at any time once the bank processes the payment.
Ivagai, on behalf of GTTGS, thanked the CSU for its assistance and said the teak plantation was expanding and getting bigger and better as years went by.