Published on : Wednesday, November 20, 2013
The new legislation imposed on Burmese Teak is taking its toll on the global timber supply market even months before it being enforced in the year 2014. Earlier in October 2012 the Myanmar Ministry of Forestry announced it will ban the export of raw teak from 2014 in a bid to increase exports of higher-earning finished products.
One of the most critical impact of this latest development is that suppliers stockpiling supplies in anticipation of shortfalls of finished wood currently sourced in India, Thailand, or Malaysia, in fear of prices being going-up. The other development impacting the supply chain is the enforced reduction in logging to preserve the country’s teak forests. The Ministry of Forestry’s U Win Tun told The Myanmar Times that teak production fell 15 per cent in 2011-12 and is expected to decline by 15 per cent in the 2012-13 financial year.
“If you ask a wood trader he’ll tell you they can’t cut wood in Myanmar,” said Peter Bakker at Gemini Teak. “Our timber products will be weak in the global market if we can’t follow the Timber Regulation,” Win Tun said, showing there is pressure for Myanmar to comply with legislation.
Indeed Bakker is already bracing for a sea change.“Smuggling will be impossible; there’s a lot of smuggling towards China and I think that’s what they want to prevent. That would be a problem for us if it changes.”
There is no other teak for us, we have high standards of quality and it’s only natural grown from Myanmar,” summarised Bakker.
Tags: Burmese Ban, Burmese Teak, Global Timber, Myanmar Ministry of Forestry
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