How many times over the past years we heard that wood processing industry is one of the strategic economic branches of BiH and that all forces should be directed at facilitating the operations of furniture manufacturers and enabling them a faster way to the European markets? This meant a new law on forests in FbiH, financial aid for the introduction of Forest Stewardship Council certificates, a decree on raw material distribution… the Draft law on forests was made recently. However, according to experts, nothing important will change after the adoption of the new law.
The present situation tells us that companies rely exclusively on their own strength and that the state pushes the problems under the carpet, while experts are unable to exert any influence on the former poor practices.
Professor Ahmet Lojo from the Faculty of Forestry of the University of Sarajevo says that there are many challenges that the state must face with if the situation in wood industry of this country is to be improved.
“It is evident that we do not invest in forestry, given the wealth of resources that we have. Currently, around five million cubic meters of wood are processed annually, 2.5 million go to logs, and the rest goes to firewood. Earlier research showed that forests are of great quality, but there are no investments. We have the capacity to cut 15 million cubic meters, which means that potentials are three times bigger than what is currently used,” Lojo said.
Lojo said that 57 percent of BiH territory is covered with forests and that makes BiH the fourth country in the Europe. One of the bigger issues is that certain forests cannot be reached because the roads are impassable.
Ismir Musić from the furniture factory Sinkro, which exports 97 percent of its production to 25 countries of the world, says that they have no problem with procurement of raw materials because they have continuous cooperation with suppliers.
Musić says that the future of furniture industry is in the export of final products, which should be especially stimulated.
“We, in our branch, constantly remind that we have the potential to bring this industry to life and that we should force the export of final products. Sinkro is working on it. It can be expected soon that this idea comes to life in all companies in BiH, it is not a far future. As long as the development is based on the export of plank instead of a couch, we cannot talk about success. The perfect solution would be that we get quality raw materials from suppliers, process it and make a final product, and then export the final product into the world,” Musić said.
(Source: ekapija.ba/photo: dnevnik.ba)
