Gmelina furniture has a future

For decades, Filipino manufacturers have relied heavily on rattan and wood as the basic raw materials. However, faced with severe short supply brought about by competition with other forest-based industries such as housing and construction, pulp and paper, veneer and plywood and handicrafts sectors, furniture manufacturers have started using stone, metal, plastics, bamboo and leather and other indigenous materials resulting in a new trend called "mixed media" furniture.

In a position paper, the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) said the current supply and quality of raw materials is not enough to sustain the industry’s growth targets. A survey conducted among furniture manufacturers reveal that approximately 60 percent of the industry’s expenses are devoted to the purchase of raw materials alone, reflecting the supply constraints faced by the industry. A great bulk of these raw materials (wood, rattan, and hardware supplies) is sourced from the US, New Zealand, and Australia for wood, Indonesia for rattan poles and Taiwan for hardware supplies.

In the woodworking sector, lauan and tanguile, the most common used wood species, have become scarce in the market resulting in a shift to the use of plantation species available locally. One of these species is gmelina which has been included in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) list of recommended plantation species.

Considered one of the most promising raw materials for furniture, Gmelina or yemane (Gmelina arborea Roxb.) has light color that makes it amenable to different finishing systems, has good strength and processing properties. One of the fast-growing plantation wood species, gmelina has a maturity of about 12 years as compared to Philippine mahogany which matures in about 30 years. Since the late 1980s, it has been widely planted as a reforestation crop making the supply fairly abundant today.

In Mindanao alone, some 400,000 hectares of mature gmelina are waiting for takers. Based on the information from DENR and other government agencies, there is more than enough volume of planted gemelina trees that will sustain more than the present requirements of the Philippine furniture industry. But tree farmers were getting frustrated and that many were beginning to abandon gmelina in favor of fruit-bearing trees or rice. Unless these farmers find a viable market for this specie, they are willing to discard the tree permanently.

Furniture from the species has the potential to compete against rubberwood furniture from Malaysia which are now flooding the local market at lower prices. However, the long-term sustainability of gmelina plantation development and utilization remains questionable due to several issues and problems.

While furniture manufacturers are complaining of raw materials supply, the tree farmers on the other hand are also complaining of over supply and lack of market, a case of dysfunctional industry value chain.

In the conference organized last year by the Furniture and Handicraft Industries Research and Development Program (FHIRDP), the Forest Products Research and Development Institute (FPRDI) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) attended by gmelina wood producers and users, participants lamented how limited information on supply, restrictive government policies on harvesting and log transport, low prices for both logs and finished products, and limited interaction between raw material suppliers and wood users have been discouraging them to continue planting this species.

On the policies on cutting and processing of the trees, tree-planters complained of the many strict requirements of DENR. If you cut a tree, it will require tax clearance. DENR issues permit that allows the tree farmers/lumber producers to transport their logs/lumber for a limited number of days, three days at the most. If it went beyond the three-day period, they have to get another permit or will be asked to pay P300/hectare as inventory fee.

On the numerous checkpoints which increase the cost of gmelina, farmers recommended the abolition of checkpoints and make it illegal to impound the lumber of this species. They contend that since gmelina is an agricultural product, DENR no longer requires a cutting permit. As far as Region 10 is concerned, verification is done during its transport but a checkpoint does not have any formal authority to hold or make demands. However, sometimes it is not only the DENR personnel who are manning the checkpoints who are not well-informed about DENR’s policies. It was recommended that people manning the checkpoints be reoriented on the new DENR rules and regulations.

Gmelina producers also appealed to the furniture manufacturers to sustain the buying of the species and to buy at good price. Otherwise, they would prefer to convert to agricultural crops which will give them better income. In Butuan and Surigao, the falcate (Paraserianthes falcataria) is much preferred because it is priced better than gmelina. A cubic meter of falcate costs P2,500 while gmelina costs P900, on the average. Falcata is also lighter making it easier to haul and transport thereby reducing costs.

In the same conference, CFIP officials cited the problem of correct processing and grading of gmelina which has a not so good reputation due to its excessive moisture content. Furniture for export required about 10 percent moisture content and very few kiln drying facilities in the country have the capacity to dry gmelina at that level. Normally, it takes more than two months to reach the desired moisture content. CFIP members who have successfully used the wood for their exports such as Myrna Bituin of JB woodcraft, Daniel Corona of Cadet Furniture, Emmanuel Padiernos of Pacific Arts and Décor, recommend the establishment of grading standards for gmelina and other plantation woods in the country.