Costa Rica: Imports and Exports of Wood and Furniture in 2013
A drop in exports of teak was the main reason for the increase in the trade deficit in the sector, which went from $3.5 million in 2011 to $26 million in 2013.
Friday, March 21, 2014
From the concluding chapter of a report by the National Forestry Office entitled "Trade balance and main trends in exports and imports of wood and wood furniture in Costa Rica"
IV. Conclusions
1. The trade deficit in wood products and furniture increased significantly in 2013, reaching $26 million. However, it did not match the levels of 2008, when $39.6 million was reported.
2. The fall in exports is explained due to the drastic reduction of teak timber destined for Southeast Asia, which confirms our predictions, given that the rate of reforestation is insufficient to meet demand.
3. Change is evident in the trend of imports of wooden furniture and lumber. In view of what happened in 2011 and 2012, it was expected that these imports would maintained steady growth. However, the rate dropped to such an extent that they remained stable compared to 2012. In large part, this situation reflects the dip reported in the construction industry, which is the niche market for these imported products.
4. Regarding the origin of wood imports: Chile remains in first place, followed by China and the United States.
In addition, the emergence of Colombia is seen as one of the main countries of origin of imported wood.
5. A marked improvement in the terms of trade of wooden furniture trade is observed. By 2012, for every dollar exported, $5.4 was imported, while in 2013 it was $3.6.
The production of wood in rolls reached 981,445 m3 during 2017, a volume only 1.3% higher than that reported in 2016.
According to the annual report of the National Forestry Office (ONF), in the harvest of 981,445 m³ of wood in rolls reported last year, was considered log wood dedicated to export and sawn timber by the primary processing industry.
In 2016, 965 thousand cubic meters of roundwood were processed, 77% of which came from forest plantations, 17% from land and agriculture use, and 5% from forests.
From the summary of the National Forest Office (ONF) report :
As part of the results of this report, the primary wood processing industry, including stationary and portable units, is estimated to have processed 965,602 cubic meters of roundwood (m3-r).Of this volume, 745,267 m3-r (77.2%) came from forest plantations, 171,017 m3-r from land for agricultural use (17.7%) and 49,318 m3-r from forests (5.1%).Based on the above information, an increase of 0.9% is confirmed compared to the volume of logs reported in 2015.