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Importance of rubberwood in wood export of Malaysia and Thailand

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Abstracts

We examined the contribution of rubberwood to the timber export markets of Malaysia and Thailand. In Malaysia, rubberwood has grown from 26% of total exported wood products in 1998 to 35% in 2007. A high proportion of furniture products (80%) is rubberwood, whereas the contribution of rubberwood to other wooden products is less than 20%. Only 10% of sawn timber and logs is rubberwood. In Thailand, rubberwood contributes to around 60% of total exported wood products, arising from a high share of not only furniture products (70%) but also other wood products (around 50%) and sawn timber and logs, which have increased in share from 40% in 1998 to 79% in 2007. We conclude that the high proportion of rubberwood products in the wood export markets of these two countries is a result of: (1) scarcity of raw wood materials because of strict controls on the logging of natural forests; and (2) governmental support to rubberwood production, including financial support to rubber planters and technical assistance to downstream timber processors.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially funded through a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (No. 18255009) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Fukuoka, 812-8581, Japan

    Akira Shigematsu, Nobuya Mizoue, Tsuyoshi Kajisa & Shigejiro Yoshida

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  1. Akira Shigematsu
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  2. Nobuya Mizoue
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  3. Tsuyoshi Kajisa
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  4. Shigejiro Yoshida
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Correspondence to Akira Shigematsu.

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Shigematsu, A., Mizoue, N., Kajisa, T. et al. Importance of rubberwood in wood export of Malaysia and Thailand. New Forests 41, 179–189 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11056-010-9219-7

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