engleski

Wood Protection in Croatia – Situation from the Acquisition of Independence till Today

In the last eighteen years in Croatian wood-working industry, respectively wood protection industry, many good changes happened. In such a short period of time Croatian industry changed their “product philosophy”. After the fatherland war and acquisition of independence the most logs and sawn wood products have been exported from Croatia. With such “kind of philosophy” Croatian wood-working industry stopped in 2000 when Croatian Government decided to “force” producers (particularly small and medium sized saw mills and owners) to invest own money in kiln drying chambers. As the result of these economy measures, today Croatian firms mainly export semi-finished and finished wooden products. In spite of recession, which is everywhere recognised as the “bad thing”, at the top of the export list are parquet made from solid wood (or nowadays thermally modified wood), partly or completely kiln dried wooden elements for furniture and wood construction industry, solid wood furniture (cabinets, kitchen furniture), and smaller amount of joinery. The quality of those products mostly depends on the quality of protection and preservation. In the same time, knowledge on the wood protection and preservation arise, as among professionals and technicians in industry, as among scientist and researchers at the Forestry Faculty. The use of new technologies (such is modification methods) and new preservatives is greater than was twenty years ago. We hope that the new equipment in new wood preservation laboratories will encourage further research not only scientifically but even more for Croatian wood industry.

Croatian wood industry; scientific research in Croatia; knowledge; Croatian potentials; raw material; wood protection and preservation

Document No. IRG/WP 10-40501