Lao furniture association seeks expanded wood quota
Lao furniture association seeks expanded wood quota
The Lao Furniture Association is asking the government to issue a larger wood quota to allow for furniture and wood product promotion.
In the last few years, the government approved the provision of 30 percent of its annual wood quota to the association but this has not been collected, the association's President, Mr Khamphay Somsana told Vientiane Times yesterday.
He said that despite the government app roval, when the association has asked each target province for their share of the quuota, the provincial authorities could not supply the required wood as those production forests were kept for the companies which spent their fund s upfront for development projects.
Each furniture entrepreneur until now has had to buy wood from sawmills, while some are buying from timber yards instead of using timber supplied under government-allocated quotas, said Mr Khamphay.
The price of wood from sawmills and traders is expensively high, which has caused entrepreneurs to have to invest large amounts of capital, thereby delaying expansion, he added.
Mr Khamphay said the government can help the association to collect the wood quota from the provinces.
In previous years, furniture and wood products could create added value for the country's revenue collection, while also creating job opportunities and promoting skill development for local people, he explained.
The shortage of raw materials within the country is still a major problem for furniture manufacturers' operations, Mr Khamphay said.
The demand for wooden furniture is high in both the Lao and foreign markets but supply is limited. There is a strong interest from the Chinese market for Lao furniture if the association is able to supply products in sufficient quantities.
The association hopes to receive cooperation and boost promotion from the government after it prohibited log exports and instructed that timber must be processed within the country before being exporting to foreign countries.
Such cooperation and promotion will create increased benefits for their businesses and generate revenue for the country as well as create job opportunities.
However, different people have observed that the government ban cannot suddenly stop raw wood exports but it can reduce it and prevent some illegal logging.
According to recent reports, Laos has no statistics on the amount of wood exported as the government has been unable to collect the information from local authorities.
In previous years, the large volume of logs exported to neighbouring countries resulted in only relatively small amounts of revenue paid to the government budget.
