Production and market dynamics of sawn timber and utility poles in Tanzania
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Date
2020
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Sawn timber and utility poles are the main forest products which are largely traded in
international and domestic markets. However, it is unclear to what extent the recent
changes in the allocation and availability of wood raw materials; price and other factors
have influenced production and marketing of these products. This study analyzes the
production and market dynamics of sawn timber and utility poles in Tanzania.
Specifically, the study focused on examining production of sawn timber and utility poles,
assessing domestic and export market of sawn timber and utility poles, compare prices of
selected sizes of sawn timber in Tanzania markets and identifying main factors affecting
the production and marketing of sawn timber and utility poles. Primary data were
collected through questionnaires and direct observation. The quantitative data were
analysed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) by computing
descriptive statistics to obtain mean and percentage distribution of the responses. The
study revealed that the production of soft wood sawn timber exhibited a gradual
decreasing trend from 837 926.79 m 3 in 2009/2010 to 552 011.44 m 3 in 2018/2019; while
the production of utility poles rose from 313 612 poles in 2015 to 461 449 in 2019. Both
export of sawn timber and utility poles exhibited an increasing trend between 2005 and
2009, a sharp drop between 2010 and 2012, and maintained a stable trend between 2012
and 2019. The imports of sawn timber and utility poles exhibited a sharp increasing trend
between 2012 and 2014 while steadily decreased for sawn timber and sharply for utility
poles from 2012 to 2019. There was a significant difference in prices of nine categories of
sawn timber size in major markets in Tanzania (χ 2 (2) = 46.8813 p < 0.0001). Production of
sawn timber is gradually decreasing while that of utility poles is gradually increasing.
Production and marketing of sawn timber and utility poles is largely affected by
inadequacy of infrastructure and raw materials.
The study recommends that, the government should establish standards that would guide the production and marketing
of sawn timber and utility poles in Tanzania.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Sawn timber-market dynamics, Sawn timber production