India emerges one of the top five forest products consuming countries
Global forest products industry is slowly recovering from the economic recession. The Asia-Pacific region, especially China and India, is propelling this, says a recent report of United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). India is one of the top five countries that imports industrial roundwood. Consumption of paper and paperboard has doubled since 2007. Also, global production of forest products grew from one per cent in 2010 to four per cent in 2011, the report states.
FAO’s forest products statistics present figures for the production and trade (quantity and value) of forest products, covering 52 product categories, 21 product groups and 245 countries and territories.
The report summarises the global trend by stating that though the declining trend in 2007-09 in the production of industrial roundwood and sawnwood has not been recovered, production of wood-based panels was higher in 2011 compared to 2007. “Most of the impact of recession was felt in Europe and North America, while the other three main regions of the world were not affected very much,” the report states.
The consequence of the economic crisis was felt mostly in Europe and North America, while the Asia-Pacific regions and other regions of the world were not affected much.
It is, primarily, China which leads the world in recovering the global forest product industries from the economic crisis. India’s import and consumption of forest products is very less in comparison to China. Countries like Austria, Germany, Sweden and India are also major importers of industrial roundwood, the report states. These five countries imported 57 per cent of all imports.
FAO’s report states that trends in paper and paperboard consumption are similar to the trends in production. The US and China accounted more than 40 per cent of the global consumption and production. India doubled its consumption and has become the fifth largest consumer. Paper and paperboard production has increased largely between 2007 and 11 (with the exception of a sudden decrease in 2009), from 388 million tonnes in 2007 to 403 million tonnes in 2011. This growth is due to increased production in the Asia-Pacific region.
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