Thomas reviews F&W’s push into South America

ALBANY, Ga. — Eight years ago, F&W Forestry President Marshall Thomas seemed to drop off the face of the earth. The usually visible Thomas simply vanished.

But foul play was not involved. Thomas had simply headed south, more specifically South America, to expand the company’s business.

“A few years back when we were looking to expand our business,” Thomas told the Albany Rotary Club Thursday. “We had already covered most of the forested areas in the United States. So we looked at South America.”

The first place Thomas looked at was Uruguay. And he was pleasantly surprised.

“Every thing there (Uruguay), to a forester, is much like it is here in the south, Thomas said. “Basically it has the same climate, same soils and same trees. It was easy, the same things we need to grow trees here also apply there.

“And the trees grow like crazy.”

F&W now manages more than 200,000 acres in Uruguay and Brazil. The company is also into agriculture, cattle and recreational property management on the continent.

They really want industry down there,” Thomas said of the South Americans. “They want paper mills, they are building them all over the place down there. There hasn’t been a new paper mill built in the United States in more than 25 years.

“A new paper mill costs one billion dollars to build and creates thousands of jobs. And they don’t smell any more, that’s in the old days.”

Thomas said that F&W is growing mostly Australian Eucalyptus in the grasslands of Uruguay and Brazil, citing their very high growth rate – which can be three times that of Southern Pine – and shorter rotations.

The F&W president said his biggest surprise was the environment regulations he encountered upon his arrival.

“I went down there with the conception of the wild west as far as environmental regulations go,” Thomas said. “But I found out that was not true. In regard to land management they are much more heavily regulated than we are here in the United States.”