Raw materials enough for furniture industry

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)