Apkindo to help govt in marketing

Apkindo to help govt in marketing

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Wood Panel Producers
(Apkindo) said Saturday that it is ready to cooperate with the
government in evaluating the widely-criticized plywood marketing
system.

Apkindo's executive chairman, A. Tjipto Wigjoprajitno, said
the association is prepared to accept the change in the plywood
marketing system as long as the new mechanism benefits its
members.

"If the new marketing system does not benefit the
association's members, we will not follow the new rule," he said
in his response to Trade Minister Satrio B. Joedono's statement
on a review of the country's plywood marketing system.

Joedono told members of the House of Representatives in a
recent hearing that Indonesia's plywood export system was being
evaluated to reinvigorate exports.

The minister said that his office was gathering information
and suggestions from all related parties for consideration in
developing the most effective mechanism to deal with the decline
in plywood exports.

Plywood exports are, under the current market system, solely
handled by Apkindo through its trading arms in major plywood
importing countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China,
Hong Kong as well as European and Middle East countries.

The association allows plywood producers to notify only
Apkindo's trading arms of the volume and standards of plywood
that they have for export. It is the trading arms which are
responsible for seeking orders and distributing the orders to
producers.

The trading mechanism has been widely criticized by plywood
exporters as the assigned trading arms in the overseas markets
are, as they charged, not aggressive enough in marketing
Indonesian products.

The exporters charged that the association's policy to limit
export volume in a bid to raise prices had resulted in the
decline in the country's plywood exports last year because, they
said, many plywood importers turned to cheaper plywood from
Malaysia.

Tjipto said that the fluctuation of plywood prices was in line
with the market mechanism and that the drop in the country's
foreign exchange earnings from plywood exports was not caused by
the plywood marketing system. (hen)