Browsing by Author "Habibu, Said"

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Production and market dynamics of sawn timber and utility poles in Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2020) Habibu, Said
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.