Some of the external challenges that have over the years limited the anticipated growth of the industry are said to include the institution of market instrument ‘restriction on tree species’ and state procurement laws limiting direct access to some strategic markets, as well as quality standards or grading rules for various products which affect recovery levels and often give room for unnecessary claims from importers.
The internal challenges, however, include the inability to sell profitably on the local market due to unfair competition from illegal operators, high production cost such as fuel, electricity, spare parts for plants and machinery – making the industry’s products uncompetitive on the local and international market.
The rest of the factors likely to cripple the Ghanaian wood industry are persistent hold-ups in the production cycle due to inefficiencies in the Forestry Service Division’s (FSD) harvesting controls; delay in stock surveys’ and monitoring procedures; delay in issuance of conveyance and Law Measuring Control Certificate (LMCC), leading to increase in production cost; and the inability to use local credit facilities for re-tooling due to high interest.
The Director of Ghana Prime Wood Limited, Mr. Mark Osei-Boadi, in an interview with B&FT said the Ghana Timber Millers Organisation (GMTO) has constantly engaged government on the survival of the industry and laid down challenges as well as the way forward.
“Close to two weeks ago, the organisation held a meeting with the sector minister, Mr. Mike Hammah, on the need to ensure development of a vibrant wood industry for socio-economic development of the country,” he added.
He noted that challenges facing the wood industry cannot be addressed by individual companies, but only through working in collaboration with government and other stakeholders. “The sustainability and growth of the wood industry will depend on our ability to effectively address the current and future challenges,” he said.
Mr. Osei¬-Boadi said members of the GMTO are suggesting that government eliminates illegal logging through effective law enforcement, adding: “Already, individual companies are using private security companies to ward off illegal chainsaw operator from their concessions.”
Also, he said there is need to review policy and institutional frameworks to make plantation forestry more attractive to private investors, including industry operators.
“There should be motivation for production of more value-added products and the need to ensure higher precisions or accuracies in inventories and measurements so as to prevent loss of revenue,” he added.
According to him, prices for timber are fixed internationally and the country export more than 90 percent of production, saying: “cost of production is very high and most Ghanaians cannot afford and that those at the market are products from chainsaw operators which are sold locally.”
He explained that the timber business in Ghana comprises three levels of industrial processing (which are primary processing, ‘mainly logging’ secondary processing, ‘sawmilling, veneer and plywood’ and tertiary processing, ‘moulding, furniture and joinery’), and that all these products are for both local and exports markets.
