Plan for the development of Wooden Items sector in Sri Lanka

Rachitha silva

The production of various wooden items targets the local as well as global export market. These products include wooden toys, sport goods and educational items for children, Household items, Figurines, Sculpture and Masks, Parquet floorings and ceilings. Especially the Wooden toy industry in Sri Lanka is an established industry with over 50 exporters and over US $ 71 million annual exports. Comparatively the consumption of raw material per unit of wooden item is much less than for furniture and other products. Most of these products are value added products and the value addition depends on the design, method of production and quality of the final product. Some of the main issues in this sector were identified in FSMP, 1995 and some of the work has been done according to the FSMP.

The deregulation of laws has a beneficial impact on WBI since 2005. Most of the WBI utilizing Rubber wood blame that they are in danger due to unpredictable wood supply as this sustained resource have been exploited by the Merbok MDF Lanka Ltd. Only few companies have adopted to use alternative timber species and FSC forest certification.

The methodology used to development plan preparation is the Log frame approach, which is a matrix that discusses the goal, purpose, activities and inputs in horizontal rows and narrative summary, indicators, means of verification and risks/assumptions in columns.

The goal of this plan is Development of Wooden items sector in Sri Lanka to be a significant and reliable supplier to local and global markets. This goal is achieved for three purposes; improve the utilization of available timber resources, increase exports of wooden items, increase productivity of Wooden Items Industry. The relevant log frame is discussed in this paper.