Timber iQ October - November 2017 // Issue: 34 | Page 8

EVENTS
Wood-Mizer’s LT15Wide diesel sawmill ploughs through large diameter hardwoods during a recent open day to introduce the brand
to Equateur Province.
Wood-Mizer expands
its DRC footprint
Wood-Mizer Africa's authorised dealer in the DRC's Kinshasa
Province recently hosted an open day to launch a new Wood-
Mizer branch in the country's Equateur Province.
By Etienne Nagel of Wood-Mizer | All images courtesy of Wood-Mizer
T
he open day and new dealership in Mbandaka, 800km
north of Kinshasa, is part of Wood-Mizer Africa’s on-
going programme to expand its dealership network in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The open day introduced Wood-Mizer’s range of
sawmilling equipment to local sawmillers who still use
outdated chainsaw-based sawmilling methods to process
logs into sawn timber.
The new branch will extend Wood-Mizer’s authorised
dealer for Kinshasa’s reach into Equateur Province.
Sawmillers there now have access to Wood-Mizer’s full
range of sawmilling and secondary processing equipment
including spares, blades, after-sales service, technical
support and training.
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2017 //
Despite the huge timber reserves on its doorstep that can
drive its economic development, the Equateur Province
remains backward and poorly developed. It can only be
reached by air or water, which sees most of inhabitants
resorting to subsistence farming to feed their families and
to provide for income with produce bartered up and
down river.
The lush tropical climate lends a hand to grow crops
from the lush soils that lie adjacent to the Congo River and
that stretches into the virgin tropical forests.
The Congo River is the lifeblood of Equateur.
The farming economy depends on it to send produce up
or downstream. Modern conveniences like a motorbike taxi
service that recently replaced bicycle taxis, also arrived by