15,000 workers in fear: BiH’s export asset in a serious crisis
Bosnia and Herzegovina is recording a sharp drop in exports in the wood industry, and according to the announcements of leading people from that and the forestry sector from different areas, better times are not in sight in the industry, which has about 15,000 employees in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina alone.
Along with the metal and electrical industries, the wood industry is the backbone of the country’s exports, and these two branches together account for about 50 percent of total exports from BiH.
According to data from March, the value of exports of the wood industry of BiH last year amounted to 1,592,465,387 KM, which is 12.3 percent less than the previous year, while imports amounted to 522,761,631 KM, which is 11 percent less than in 2022.
President of the Forestry and Wood Industry Group at the Chamber of Commerce of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vildan Hajić, states that the current situation is very bad. “The collection is very slow, customers ask for additional terms from abroad so that people have currency for 60 to 90 days, and some even more. In the past period, we had an advance payment,” he explained.
As he says, the crisis at the time of the coronavirus was a boomerang for what is happening now.
“Inflation took place in which the price of sawn timber increased abnormally. Let’s say, the normal price is 200 euros, so suddenly it was 400 euros. It was never like that. It’s true, it led to an increase in wages, but then last year happened when ‘everything went back,'” explains Hajić.
Now a serious problem has arisen in the wood industry with an emphasis on forestry. The demand is not as before and the goods are not going well. “Let’s say, one of our biggest customers is Natron-Hayat. They now take delivery of the goods in a reduced manner – one week they drive, the next they don’t,” says Hajić.
Their reasons are the global crisis, falling prices, stagnation of the world market…
“Today we don’t have any official name for this crisis, we don’t see an end to this tunnel. There are no good announcements, although one should not be discouraged, but everything is heading in the direction of even more difficult times,” said Hajić for Klix.ba.
Disruption in the German market
Lejla Ćatić from the Independent Union of Forestry, Wood and Paper Processing tells Klix.ba that this crisis has been going on since the middle of last year.
“There was a drop in production in forestry and the wood and paper industry, as well as in the marketing of goods. This happened because of the disturbances in the German market, where we are most oriented, but also because of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine,” she explained.
Recession and crisis, however, began to be felt in this market at the beginning of 2024. “There has also been a reduction in workers in some companies, and some of them have been assigned to other activities,” notes Ćatić.
He explains that, as a result, salaries had to be reduced and some were left without a job. According to data from April, there was a decrease in the number of workers in the sectors of forestry, forest exploitation, furniture production…
“As for salaries, there were some corrections. There are certain disturbances that, for example, they are late, but they are not big, they try to settle all these obligations”, Ćatić concluded.
Source: Klix
Photo: Freepik, Pixabay
Source: bizlife.rs
