Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, Datuk Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, said Sarawak will focus on planted forests and high value-added products for its timber industry in view of declining resources from natural forests. He also said the state was targeting one million hectares of planted forests by 2025 which will become the main source of raw materials for the timber industry.
He noted there was a 12% decline in Sarawak’s timber export revenues in the first three quarters of this year. Exports from the State were worth RM3.48 bil. between January to September this year, down from RM3.96bil in the same period last year.
In the first three quarters of 2019 plywood, the state’s main timber export product, saw a 21% decline in export earnings to RM1.76 bil., down from the RM2.25 bil. in the same period in 2018.
Japan remains Sarawak’s main plywood export market, worth RM1.7 bil. between January to September this year but this is a year on year drop of around 13%. Other major markets are India (RM394mil), the Middle East (RM327mil), Taiwan P.o.C (RM239mil) and South Korea (RM193mil).