Innovative timber products to open market opportunities
Innovative timber products to open market opportunities
The Lao timber processing industry will soon be able to increase its yield and profits utilising small diameter logs and lesser known species to produce value-added wood panels, according to a leading official.
“The Lao wood processing industry can now overcome insufficient and inconsistent supply of logs by using lesser known timber species, small diameter logs, branches and waste wood,” Director General of Department of Industry and Handicraft, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Mr Manohack Rasachack explained.
Mr Manohack made the remarks at a two-day workshop (May 30-31) discussing a prefeasibility study for a wood panel pilot production plant.
The initiative is under the umbrella of the German Development Cooperation project “Support to the Lao EU-FLEGT Process,” implemented by GIZ.
Mr Manohack said the new practices could assist in maintaining jobs especially in rural areas, increase quality and add more value to products made from locally available low value resources, as well as enhance the efficient use of timber and increase tax revenues for the government.
Using lesser known species allowed quality to be maintained, shorter delivery times and it was priced to meet market demand.
“By processing unused resources into high value-added products, the production plant could serve as a model for other investors in the areas of Chain of Custody (CoC), modern efficient and environmentally friendly production technology, state-of-the-art production management system in connection with CoC systems, and preventive machine and tool maintenance,” senior international adviser to the German Development Cooperation project Mr Heiko Woerner said.
To achieve this, there was an urgent need to strengthen the capacity of staff in different topics such as production management and CoC procedures, performance and cost monitoring in production plants and quality management in connection with basic knowhow in wood technology and material science, he explained.
During the two-day meeting, participants also had a chance to discuss and agree on the further development and implementation of the scheme, as well as to identify some potential private companies to implement the pilot project.
