Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA), a non-profit-making association which represents companies producing timber, panels, paper and pulp and secondary products in Alberta (Canada), has announced that Mercer International will join the Association as a new member.
Mercer International has its main office in Vancouver, Canada and operates worldwide in the production and marketing of wood-based products, including pulp, wood products, biochemical products and energy. The company manages a kraft pulp factory in Peace River (a town in Canada, situated in northern Alberta), which employees 285 people and also has units in British Columbia, Germany and Australia. Mercer has a global manufacturing capacity of about 2.2 million tonnes of kraft pulp a year, 550 million metres of wood, 400 Megawatts of green electricity and manages sandalwood plantations and extraction plants.
«We are very pleased to welcome Mercer into the AFPA family», declared the president and CEO of AFPA, Paul Whittaker. «Alberta is the most sustainable manager of forests in the world and is second to none in its production processes. Mercer’s reputation as an innovator and great manager of resources makes it an ideal partner for our association. We are looking forward to working with them, and with all the companies which form our Association, in order to tell our story of sustainability and boost the markets in our native land and abroad».
«We are proud of our site in Peace River, of our innovative employees and of the forest management agreement of which we are part», declared David Gandossi, president and CEO of Mercer. «Our attention to operational excellence, together with our unique approach geared towards sustainability and forestry based on ecosystems, align well with AFPA’s objectives and we are pleased to join this important organisation».
AFPA is the voice of the forestry industry in Alberta. Forestry creates 40 thousand jobs in Alberta and adds seven billion dollars to the provincial economy.