BRIN: Technological Innovation Key to Developing Value-Added Forest Products
Denpasar (ANTARA) - The National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) considers technological innovation to be an important factor in improving production efficiency, yield, and the development of value-added forest products.
“Timber is a material with extraordinary advantages and remains highly relevant for the future,” said Ratih Damayanti, Director of Environmental, Maritime, Natural Resources and Nuclear Energy Policy at BRIN, in a joint statement with the Ministry of Forestry received in Denpasar, Bali, on Friday.
Echoing this view, Tjipta Purwita, Secretary of the Indonesian Community Forestry Communication Forum (FKMPI), said current challenges in timber industry downstreaming include raw material certainty, production efficiency, and market certainty as well as competitiveness.
He added that further challenges include inefficient licensing, geopolitical impacts, and global market dynamics regarding market requirements and competition with substitute materials for wood products.
“Businesses need fiscal support for machinery imports, financing for the modernisation of timber processing infrastructure, and improvements to licensing regulations,” said Tjipta.
In addition, he said businesses also need support in the form of strengthening the domestic market through government procurement via the national goods and services procurement platform (Inaproc).
Tjipta continued that strengthening the implementation of the Timber Legality and Sustainability Verification System (SVLK), market intelligence, market diversification, flexibility in the use of raw materials, upstream-downstream partnerships, and the development of industrial plantation forests are also important areas of attention going forward.
Meanwhile, Ade Mukadi, Director of Forest Product Processing and Marketing Development at the Ministry of Forestry, also emphasised that what is needed now is collaboration and a shared vision and mission for downstreaming.
“This serves as the foundation for strengthening the forest products industry, so that the notion of a sunset industry for forest product processing can be refuted,” said Ade.
Furthermore, he said the Ministry of Forestry is also inviting all stakeholders to use the public consultation momentum as a joint step towards building an Indonesian forest products industry ecosystem that is economically strong while excelling in terms of sustainability.