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The cluster group has identified areas of opportunities and
incourages initiatives in these areas. The stronger and more globally competitive these companies become, the more
they can boost and assist the larger firms in the region that they supply.
Fabricating
There appears to be a couple of cluster opportunities, such
as the particular aspirations of the fabricating companies to pursue new product development and new markets, that may lead
to sub cluster initiatives. The Miramichi appears to have a relatively weak presence of mill and forestry equipment manufacturing
companies. This would suggest an apparent need to focus greater attention on working with the local fabrication companies
to help identify forestry-based product development opportunities and to support a collaborative marketing initiatives to
help address export market opportunities.
Value-added
There also appears to be interest in developing opportunities
with respect to a number of new products dealing with innovation in fields such as value-added manufacturing, bioenergy and
the bioeconomy,
As a rule value-added manufacturing opportunities offer the
greatest possibilities for new job creation in the region as they will use the output from the forestry sector as their primary
resource. As such, value added manufacturing offers a four-fold economic impact
as compared to the export of dimensional lumber on the commodity market.
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