STATUS OF IMPORTED SAWN WOOD TRADE IN SRI LANKA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31357/fesympo.v0i0.1447Abstract
The present study was carried out to investigate the standards of the importedsawn wood found in building construction and furniture manufacturing sits, andamong timber dealers. A questionnaire survey was carried out in the districts ofColombo, Kandy and NuwaraEliya and the collected timber samples from theusers and from the timber dealers were examined.
The investigations revealed that the imported hardwoods such as Kempas, Tulang,Bitis, Durian, Tembusu, Burma Teak and some other unidentified species arefound in the construction and furniture manufacturing sits and in the market.Results show that authentic Balau or Red Balau were not received by the users orsupplied by the timber dealers. Only 42% and all 100% of the users receivedauthentic Kempas and Tulang respectively, whereas 42% and 50% of thesuppliers sold authentic Kempas and Tulang respectively.
The density of the unidentified hardwoods received by users as Kempas werefound to be comparable to Kempas except one species, which was inferior toKempas. The unidentified hardwoods received as Balau and Red Balau werefound to be medium or heavy hardwoods based on their density. The density ofthe unidentified timbers that are sold as Kempas was comparable to Kempas. Theunidentified hardwoods sold as Balau, Red Balau, Bitis and Kandis were mediumor heavy harwoods based on density determined. Most of the imported harwoodsfound in the construction and furniture manufacturing sites and in the market hadacceptable quality based on the density, but durability of the unidentifiedhardwoods was not known for the comparison. Based on results it was found thatsome for the species supplied by the dealers as high rated timbers, (e.g. Durian)had comparable density values with that of true species (e.g. Balau and Kempas)but these species were less durable compared with the true species. Based on thefindings of the present study, it is suggested to develop practicable standards andquality assurance methods for the imported hardwoods
