Malaysia’s export earnings from timber products increased by 3% in 2002 to M$14.8bn.
The best performance came from the furniture sector with overseas sales of M$4.2bn, 28.6% of the total timber products export value, followed by plywood (24.1%) and sawn timber (16.4%).
However, the government warns of challenges for the industry this year as overall markets remain uncertain. It believes a US-led attack on Iraq could make the situation worse.
Industry is being encouraged to make use of government help to enable it to reduce costs and increase productivity.
