Table of Contents Next Page


Salesmanship

EXPO 67 AT MONTREAL. is selling the contemporary image of Canada to the world. Pictured on the cover of this issue is the Pulp and Paper Pavilion which is part of the contribution being made by more than 40 pulp and paper companies located in every region of the country to the splendor of this great exhibition which marks Canada's centennial year.

Over the past 100 years wood has been Canada's most abundant resource and a basis for the country's broadening economy. It is probably still the most versatile of the major building materials which was available to the architects, engineers and builders of Expo. The widespread use of wood in Expo buildings, in many forms, gives a truly Canadian flair to the exciting architecture.

Second only to Canada as a world exporter of pulp and paper which provide half of the country's export earnings, Finland too has by salesmanship won herself a position, in the tough competition which exists in international markets, among the world's most important forestry. nations.

It has been felt for some time that it was impossible for economic growth to continue at a satisfactory rate in Finland without increasing still further the export earnings of the forest industries. In 1964 the so-called MERA program was instituted to match increased forest production to the increased needs of industry. In 1966 a committee, chaired by the Governor of the Bank of Finland, produced a second report which expanded the initial program and recommended how to ensure the financing of the whole plan. Parliament showed its faith in the results of the efforts which foresters were called upon to make by approving the financing of the broadened program, without waiting for lengthy research and trials. Immediate action and decisions were instituted.

An astute example of public relations in forestry was a recent invitation to a small group of editors of European forestry journals to tour Finland to see how the MERA program had attained the support of the state authorities, as well as the general co-operation of forest owners, forest industries and indeed the whole nation.

What was seen during this visit in the way of the draining of peat lands and marshes, tree breeding, the use of fertilizers, plastic greenhouses, ingenious machines for rapid bundling of seedlings, improved harvesting and transport methods, all provided examples of the considerable opportunities that were being seized by Finnish foresters for an increased crop of industrial wood.

For the moment, however, wood seems to be commanding too high a price at the mill from the point of view of international competitiveness. But where the owner cannot get what he thinks is a due price for his wood, he does not sell.

This is a situation by no means peculiar to Finland. The last session of the FAO European Forestry Commission held in Rome, in May, tried to assess the cures for some present ailments of the European situation. Use of the word "ailments" was considered no exaggeration. Some delegates in fact complained that European forestry was in a really critical situation. Forest producers encounter increasing difficulties in selling their wood and forest industries cannot place their products. Yet at the same time there are considerable overseas imports into Europe of forest products, especially pulp and tropical hardwoods.

The traditionally high labor content of forest production, particularly in wood harvesting operations and everywhere the rise in wages and benefits, narrows down the profit margin of the enterprise. On the other hand the viability of forest industries depends more and more on massive supplies of uniform raw material which does not match the pattern of Europe's forests, especially in those countries - and there are several - where forest ownership is frequently divided into smallholdings.

Some answers for forest industries seem to be a considerable redeployment of effort, taking advantage of what is called "economy of scale" and fuller integration of industrial processes. For forest producers, modernization and mechanization of forest operations are suggested, especially cheaper logging and transport. But for industrialists and forest producers alike closer co-operation between them and new methods of buying and selling, of price setting and of salesmanship, seem needed to change the present trend.

FIGURE 1. - Smallholdings, such as this farm woodlot in Louisiana, make up the majority of America's certified tree farms. This owner has fenced his pines against destructive grazing by cattle.

(All photographs by American Forest Products Industries, Inc.)


Top of Page Next Page