My History of Promoting
Canadian Forestry Products

By Muhammad Amir
President and Founder
of SPF Precut Lumber

I have promoted Canadian softwood lumber into new markets my entire professional life.

Even before I founded Pacific Prince Investments Inc – later known by its tradename, SPF Precut Lumber – I cut my teeth promoting Canadian softwood lumber while working in international shipping. From 1982 to 1989, I was a marketing manager for the Norwegian-based, international steamship line company, Höegh Lines, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). At the time, I noticed that Canadian softwood lumber was being shipped into Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, but it was not being shipped in substantial volumes to the UAE, where Dubai was a burgeoning metropolis.

So, I coordinated with Höegh Lines’ Vancouver office to plan a trade mission for a delegation of Canadian softwood lumber producers
to visit Dubai. I organized their agenda and introduced them to the major wood importers in the UAE. Over the course of this trade
mission, I worked with Bill Rafter, and then later Jim Logan and Mohinder Sull of Westar Timber.

Together, we hosted an event at the Hyatt Regency Dubai on September 1, 1988, where I invited all the major lumber importers
in the UAE. The purpose of the event was to introduce Canadian softwood lumber to the local UAE market. The seminar highlighted
forestry practices in Canada, explained the basics of Canadian lumber sizes and grades, and demonstrated the various applications
of Canadian lumber. As a feature of the event, bundles of Canadian SPF (spruce-pine-fir) lumber were displayed on a flatbed truck outside of the hotel for the local importers to see the wood for themselves.

At the same time, I had worked with my trade managers at Höegh Lines to offer special freight services and rates for shipping Canadian lumber from Vancouver to Jebel Ali (the UAE’s main shipping port). This supported opening up the UAE market for Canadian softwood lumber.

When I moved to British Columbia (BC), Canada in 1989, I completed a short lumber grading course arranged by The Council of Forest Industries. Shortly thereafter, I founded Pacific Prince Investments Inc. – later known as SPF Precut Lumber – in 1990 with my wife, Shaheen Zafar, to broker the export of Canadian wood products to the Middle East.

Notably, I represented Balfour Guthrie and introduced Ranger medium-density fibreboard (MDF) to the Middle East, mainly the UAE
and Saudi Arabia. This Canadian product had never been exported to the region before. By 1992, our company was selling about 5000 cubic-meters of MDF per month to the Middle East, in addition to Canadian softwood (primarily SPF) lumber and plywood.

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