Plywood industry struggling hard for survival

The plywood industry in Yamunanagar district, considered the backbone of farmers and job provider to thousands of people, is struggling hard for survival as it has not been getting enough poplar and eucalyptus wood for a long time to produce various products, including block boards and flush doors etc.

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The industry needs more than 2 lakh quintals of poplar and eucalyptus wood every day, but, at present, is getting less than 1 lakh quintals of wood.

The problem of the short supply to the industry developed when the state government opened licences after conducting a survey related to the availability of poplar and eucalyptus wood in Haryana in 2016 and a number of new plywood factories came in Yamunanagar district.

The demand of opening of new licences to set up plywood factories was raised by organisations of farmers, including Haryana Poplar-Safeda Utpadak Sangrash Samiti, after poplar rates came down to Rs 400 per quintal from Rs 1200 per quintal due to the high production of poplar wood.

Farmers had to sell poplar wood at the rate of Rs 400 per quintal for a long time, but with the coming up of new plywood factories here, the demand for wood increased in the plywood factories, increasing rates of poplar and eucalyptus wood. In January, the poplar rate is between Rs 1,300 and Rs 1,500 per quintal.

“The plantation of poplar trees has helped improve the financial condition of farmers of the region. This has happened due to increased demand of wood in plywood factories of Yamunanagar district,” said a poplar producer/farmer Anil Kaushik.

Yamunanagar district is considered to be the hub of poplar wood in Haryana, but this district was unable to cater to the needs of wood of Yamunanagar district industry alone. Therefore, the farmers of Uttar Pradesh were major suppliers of wood to meet the high demand of poplar and eucalyptus wood in plywood factories here.

With the coming up of a number of plywood factories in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, a big section of the farmers of Uttar Pradesh have started supplying their poplar wood to the factories of their state and Uttarakhand. This development created a crisis of wood in the plywood industry of Yamunanagar district.

Industry sources say the plywood industry of Yamunanagar district has been getting less than 1 lakh quintal of poplar wood every day after 2020.

The Haryana Plywood Manufacturing Association has been telling the state government to save the plywood industry of Yamunanagar district by giving them relief in market fee and solving their other problems.

Anil Garg, executive member of the association, said the plywood industry of Yamunanagar district had been getting more than 50 per cent of the poplar wood supply from Uttar Pradesh till some years in the past.

“Our industry has not been getting poplar and eucalyptus wood in the required quantity for some years after a number of plywood factories came to Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. As a result, we are not getting enough wood, creating crisis in our industry,” said Garg.

He said the plywood industry of Yamunanagar needed more than 2 lakh quintals of poplar and eucalyptus wood every day.

JK Bihani, president, Haryana Plywood Manufacturers Association, said they were demanding to abolish 1 per cent market fee for survival of this industry as this industry was reeling under a huge financial crisis.

There are about 350 plywood factories and 700 peeling factories, band mills and chipper factories in Yamunanagar district.