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With the domestic housing market still in a slump, area mills are working to land more export contracts with buyers in Australia, China and India.
As part of the strategy to send lumber to overseas buy­ers, the Vaagen Bros. Lumber mill in Colville will soon be taking over operations of a mill at Midway, B.C.

Vaagen Bros. will use the mill to help produce specialty metric lum­ber for the Australian market.
The former Pope and Talbot mill, now known as Boundary Sawmill Inc, was recently pur­chased by Fox Forest Prod­ucts of Montana. Vaagen Bros. affiliate, Vaagen Fibre Canada, ULC, has signed a 10-year lease contract with the company, with option to renew.
Vaagen Bros. Vice President Russ Vaagen said that the company had been looking at the plant for some time, but they needed to further “investigate the timber supply.”