EDEN CHIPMILL OWNER REPORTS $60,453,885 PROFIT
Allied Natural Wood Enterprises (ANWE), owner of the Eden woodchip mill has just reported a staggering profit of over $60 million for 2021/22.
The profit was revealed in ANWE’s Annual Financial Statement to ASIC lodged this week.
This contrasts with a $9 million loss on native forest logging achieved by the NSW Forestry Corporation for the same period.
Forest campaigner, Harriett Swift described the result as devastating.
“This obscene profit has come at a heavy cost to taxpayers, the environment, biodiversity and the climate,” she said.
“We recognise that a significant part of this huge profit has come from new forestry assets - some of them in the plantation sector - acquired by ANWE during the financial year, but some of it has come from the Eden chipmill.
“To make a profit from the destruction of forests still struggling to recover from bushfires exacerbated by decades of woodchipping is hard to take,” Ms Swift said.
The Eden chipmill continues to be the driver of all native forest logging on the South Coast, with some operations in the Eden Region yielding 100% woodchips.
The profit has been boosted by tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies, especially after the bushfires.
Generous subsidies have gone to both ANWE and its partner company, Pentarch, with which it shares facilities in Eden.
“ANWE’s shocking profit is probably just part of the story since Pentarch is yet to lodge an Annual Financial Statement to ASIC,” she said.
30 November 2022