Abstract:
Primary forest based industries in the country play a major role in the conversion of forest products into
various end uses. The current study was conducted to assess demand and supply of raw materials, the
means of allocating raw materials, the challenges and opportunities of the availability and production of raw
materials for forest industries. The study was conducted in Tanzania mainland covering seven zones and
23 forest plantations under TFS jurisdiction. Structured questionnaire were used for data collection. The
data were then coded, compiled, and analysed using SPSS and Ms excel. The results indicate that primary
wood based industries were either active (44%) or inactive (45%) with small proportions (11%) being dormant
and their actual installed, annual wood demand and utilized capacities were 2,541,918 m3
, 1,559,332 m3
and
554,752 m3
respectively. The finding revealed that the total annual wood allocated for all primary wood
based industries increases yearly due to the growing market demand of wood for construction purpose or
other development activities. The finding revealed further that the increasing demand of industrial round
wood created a lot of challenges that affected day-to-day operations. Example of such challenges include
political leaders banning harvesting of forest products. Finally, there is existing potential for government,
individual, private or community for expanding areas for establishment of new forest plantations in order
to increase supply of raw wood material for wood based industries.
