Raw materials enough for furniture industry

JAKARTA (JP): The furniture industry will have adequate raw materials this year in spite of the government's policy of limiting tree cutting in natural forests, an executive said here yesterday.

Deputy executive chairman of the Indonesian Furniture Industry and Handicraft Association Soetrisno Fadali said, after the opening of a furniture exhibition, that furniture manufacturers had diversified their raw materials to reduce their dependence on supplies from natural forests.

Furniture factories currently used not only wood from forest concessionaires but also from farmers who supplied wood such as bangkirai, nyato, sungkai and rubber.

Soetrisno said wood from natural forests was mostly allocated to plywood production.

Director Bramantyo of PT Mediatama Binakreasi, the organizer of the exhibition, said that based on a government report, Indonesia's furniture exports increased to more than US$1 billion in 1996 from $875 million in 1995.

Soetrisno said Indonesia's export of rattan furniture was now facing tight competition from China, which produced similar furniture at lower cost.

China sometimes used raw rattan smuggled out from Indonesia, he said.

The government has banned the export of raw and semi-finished rattan to promote the development of the furniture industry. But the export ban, which caused a price decline, has encouraged collectors to smuggle out rattan. (13)