Plywood exports reach $2.24b
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's plywood exports increased by 2.53 percent to US$2.24 billion during the first semester of this year from the same period of last year, the Association of Indonesian Wood Panel Producers (Apkindo) says.
"The export development indicates that the country's plywood exports are unlikely to decline this year, as often rumored these days," Tjipto Wignjoprajitno, Apkindo's secretary general, told reporters at his office yesterday.
"I'm confident our plywood exports will reach, at least, last year's level despite rising competition from Malaysia," he said.
Indonesia, one of the world's leading plywood producers, exported wood products worth nearly US$5.5 billion -- including plywood worth $4.22 billion -- last year, which accounted for almost 15 percent of the country's total exports of $36.82 billion.
The Indonesian business circle for the last three months has been swept by rumors suggesting that the country's plywood exports have been declining steadily since April, supposedly due to rising competition from Malaysia and the way the domestic plywood market is being controlled by Apkindo.
Under Indonesian regulations, all international transactions in the plywood industry must be conducted through Apkindo, which groups about 115 plywood firms, and its appointed distributors.
Muhamad (Bob) Hasan, Apkindo's chairman, conceded last month that there has been some decline in volume and prices of Indonesia's plywood exports due to the drop in purchases from South Korea and China.
Although he declined to cite exact figures, Hasan insisted then that the decline was a temporary trend.
Despite Hasan's assurances, Apkindo's figures obtained by The Jakarta Post yesterday reflect that the value of plywood exports from April to June were on a downward trend. Figures for July through September, rumored to be very low, were not available.
The data show that plywood exports declined from $433 million in March to $366 million in April, to $348 million in May and to $317 million in June.
Television
On the same occasion yesterday, Tjipto, concurrently the secretary general of Indonesian Forestry Society (MPI), said that he had not received any reports that MPI's television commercials had been suspended by the Netherlands' National Commission of Advertisement, as claimed Thursday by the Network for Forest Conservation in Indonesia (Skephi).
"We have not heard about the report but MPI is in the middle of a process to improve the advertisements," he said while declining to specify the process.
The MPI ads, which claim that Indonesia has replanted 11 billion trees under its sustainable forest management program, have been suspended by Britain and Japan following protests from local environmental organizations, saying that MPI has exaggerated their claims.
Minister of Forestry Djamaludin Suryohadikusumo said Wednesday that MPI should "revise its advertisements because we did not replant as many trees as the commercials claim."
Djamaludin, however, did not disclose the exact figures of how many trees Indonesia has replanted in its reforestation efforts.
Tjipto insisted that the ads convey "correct information" because they are founded on "data obtained by the Ministry of Forestry."
MPI only stated how many trees were replanted and not the final outcome, Tjipto said.
Skephi, which claims that it based its conclusions on official figures, insisted that only 1.3 billion trees were replanted on 730,600 hectares as of March 1994, as compared to the target of 1.8 billion hectares.
Indro Tjahjono, a Skephi executive, said that even if all of the targeted 1.8 billion hectares were replanted, there would be only 3 billion trees.
"Even if MPI claims that its members planted 11 billion seeds instead of trees, it will not be possible. The government only allocates a limited area of land which can accommodate only 900 million seeds," Indro said. (hdj)