THE government should decide this month on its preferred bidders for the sale of its state-owned forestry company and other assets, an official said on Tuesday. “We are hopeful that by the end of October some decisions will have been made on the bidding process,” Lael Bethlehem, chief director of forestry, told parliament’s water and forestry committee. Government says that nine foreign and local bidders have submitted a total of 14 bids for forests and saw mills owned by the state and the South African Forestry Company Ltd (Safcol), which are valued at up to R1,5-billion.