On August 22, Malaysian Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamarudin attended the event where CTSC Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB), signed a number of memorandums of understanding with seven stakeholders. ceremonial activities.
During the event, Minister Zuraida disclosed that from January to June 2022, Malaysia's total timber exports reached 13.2 billion ringgit (about 20.16 billion yuan), an increase of 13.79% from 11.59 billion ringgit in the same period last year.
She pointed out that since the export value of the timber industry reached RM22.74 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 3.27%, of which wooden furniture accounted for the largest share with a total export value of RM10.4 billion, the total export value of wood this year is expected to exceed 30 billion. Ringgit.
However, she admits that local Aboriginal businesses or Aboriginal furniture manufacturers accounted for only 1 per cent of total timber exports last year.
“If compared to 2020, the export trade of the Bumiputera furniture export industry will drop by 15.4% in 2021, from RM64.7 million to RM54.74 million. The participation of Bumiputera furniture and timber players remains low,” she said.
"There are 485 indigenous timber mills in our country, 90% of which are small and micro enterprises. Only 21 of them exported timber last year."
In this regard, she hopes that Bumiputera timber mills will apply to become members of the Malaysian Indigenous Timber and Furniture Entrepreneurs Association (PEKA), in order to accelerate the development of the timber industry and increase the total timber exports from Malaysia. In addition, facing the shortage of timber raw materials in Malaysia, she suggested that local companies can invest in planting trees in Indonesia.
As far as the furniture industry is concerned, Kamaruzaman Othman, director general of the Malaysian Timber Industry Board, is cautiously optimistic about the furniture industry this year. He stressed that the Malaysian furniture industry must deal with long-standing issues such as shortages of raw materials and workers.
"If we can alleviate this problem, we should do better than we have in the past," he added.