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Timber Exports Cut Down to Size in Q1
Arti Ekawati | June 15, 2009

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The nation’s downstream timber products industry has been hit hard by the global economic crisis, with export values plummeting 28 percent year on year to $559.7 million in the first quarter, the Central Statistics Agency reported on Monday

The export volume of lumber-based products and their derivatives — including furniture and door and window frames — amounted to 334,290 metric tons, a 23.2 percent drop from the year-earlier period. The value of exports fell as well, dropping 15.8 percent below last year’s $375.8 million.

Paper-based products and their derivatives fared somewhat better, with export volume declining 3.1 percent to 32,747 metric tons, while the value of exports dropped 17.1 percent to $183.9 million during the period, the agency reported.

“The total export value of these products decreased to $559.7 million,” said Vanda Mutia Dewi, the national coordinator of Greenomics, a nongovernmental organization working in the forestry sector. “That shows the impact of the demand decrease given weaker buying power in export markets.”

Vanda urged the government and exporters to seek ways to reduce the drop in volumes so as to avoid further falls in export earnings.

“A drop of more than half a billion dollars in just three months is a really bad sign for downstream forestry industries,” she said.

Timber product exporters, she said, also needed to pay more attention to nontariff barriers like standardization requirements and the need for sustainable-use certificates.

Among such barriers, she said, was a US government ruling due to go into effect next year requiring that all wood-based products lacking legal certificates of origin be rejected.

The European Union is also expected to soon ban timber products that are not accompanied by timber-tracking certificates in an attempt to combat illegal logging.

Furniture and handicraft exports in 2008 were valued at about $2 billion, with the United States taking 30 percent and European countries 40 percent of total exports. The furniture sector employs about 11 million workers, with 7.5 million of those jobs in Java.