The adoption of a national strategy for wood processing and furniture manufacturing was announced as well as a sector strategy for the wood-processing industry which is being prepared by timber manufacturers themselves.
"The government has recognised the significance of wood processing and furniture production and has embarked on preparing a strategy for this field which should be adopted in the third quarter of this year," Assistant Agriculture Minister Ivica Francetic said.
He recalled that investment in developing forest areas and improving forest sustainability is important for the rural development programme for forest workers, timber and furniture manufacturers and announced the first mapping of wood processing and furniture manufacturing to determine production and technical capacities which will facilitate the creation of future investment policies.
President of the wood-processing cluster in the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, Ivic Pasalic said that "we consider the situation in forest management and industry based on forestry to be poor and that that is the result of the lack of a clear strategy by the previous government and as such, timber manufacturers and support industries have decided to create their own strategy," he said, adding that he hoped the strategy would get political consensus.
"The first thing we want is a clear stance that forests and forest based industries are a strategic Croatian national interest and, likewise, forest management policies need to promote that clear strategic interest," he said.
Pasalic underscored that heating in Croatia is based on fossil fuels while at the same time the country export 25,000 tonnes of wood pellets and about one million tonnes of various off-cuts.
The two-day conference attracted around 200 participants.
Information presented at the conference indicates that in March there was a growth of 17.8% in the furniture manufacturing industry and a growth of 9.2% in the wood-processing sector in comparison to March last year. The value of exports in the sector amounted to 1.1 billion euro so that 70% of revenue is generated abroad.
Croatia is the fourth largest manufacturer of hardwood parquet floorboards in the world and around 53,000 people in the country are employed in various forest-based industries.