A diagnosis of the primary transformation industry of the tropical woods of Mexico

Abstract

This paper provides a diagnosis of the primary transformation industry of tropical woods of Southeast Mexico, with the purpose of generating information that may contribute to implement strategies to promote the development of the sector. The aspects considered include the utilized timber-yielding species, the technological status of the primary transformation industry and commercialization data. Members of the productive chain and industries in the states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Yucatán, Jalisco and Mexico City were interviewed. The population of the businesses surveyed was obtained from the National Forest Commission’s Program of Productive Chains, from the forest raw materials storage and transformation centers of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and from the National Chamber of the Timber Industry. The results evidenced that the unstable flow of raw materials, the lack of strategic alliances in the productive chain and the use of old machinery all have an impact on the industry’s productivity. As for the timber market, the largest participation was that of Eucaliptus spp. and Gmelina arborea from commercial forest plantations, as well as Swietenia macrophylla and Lysiloma latisiliquum from natural forests. The timbers with the lowest level of participation were Metopium brownei, Swartzia cubensis, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, Lonchocarpus castilloi and Cedrela odorata. Most of the sawmill machinery is between 1 and 30 years old and receives little maintenance. The forest residues of the milling process are not used due to the lack of incentives for their exploitation, as well as of knowledge of the appropriate technologies for this purpose.