TIRANA, March 15 – Albanian and international companies came together this week in Tirana showcasing their products at the 14th furniture fair as the country’s wood processing industry is meeting the overwhelming majority of the country’s needs and has doubled its exports in the past decade, but is suffering a 10-year logging ban introduced last year, increasing reliance on imports of raw material.
Visiting the fair which brought together exhibitors mainly from Albania, Kosovo, Economy Minister Milva Ekonomi said the sector has the capacity to attract more workers and increase its exports.
“This is one of the most serious fairs of Albania’s manufacturing industry. Data by this industry shows there are some 1,470 wood processing enterprises in the country employing about 7,000 people. Exports of wood-based products during the past three years has reached at about Euro 12 million a year,” said Ekonomi.
Albania has a huge gap in its wood trade with imports being four times higher than its exports.
Data published by the country’s state statistical institute, INSAT, shows exports of wood and wood products slightly dropped to 2.2 billion lek (€16 million) in 2016 when Albania introduced a 10-year logging ban, down from a record high of 2.5 billion lek (€18.5 mln) in 2015.
Meanwhile, wood imports sharply rose by 22 percent to about 9 billion lek (€66 million), hitting a historic high, apparently affected by the introduction of the logging ban.
Despite its ongoing expansion, the industry continues relying on imports of raw material and suffers lack of engineers.
Almost about three-quarters of companies in Albania have no wood processing engineers due to a considerable number being small family-run businesses, unable to financially afford them, but also skeptical about the engineers’ skills, according to a 2016 study conducted by wood industry professors in Tirana.
Albania trains its wood processing engineers at the Wood Industry Department of the Faculty of Forest Sciences of the country’s sole Agriculture University of Tirana.
The country’s wood industry is organized in manufacturing and trading enterprises of furniture and other wooden products with the majority of them working with semi-finished material, chipboard and medium density fiberboard, MDF.
The study published on the India-based International Journal of Engineering Innovation & Research shows Albania has some 800 wood manufacturing and trade enterprises, employing about 9,000 people nationwide, mainly in Tirana and Fushe-Kruja, some 30 km off the capital city.
Last year, Albania imposed a 10-year wood cutting moratorium in bid to protect remaining woods after decades of illegal logging and clearing for agriculture, seriously dwindling the country’s forest cover. The ban, which sharply increased firewood prices and put some newly established wood pellet plants in trouble, is valid for industry or export purposes, whereas logging for heating purposes will be allowed albeit under the supervision of local authorities. The new law also transfers the management of forests entirely into the hands of local government.
More and more Albanian farmers have in the past few years turned to the fast-growing Paulownia, also known as the princess or empress tree, with its timber valued at about €500/m3.
