Small Scale Furniture Production

2010-01-09T19:57:24+01:00

As many of you will know, TFT is involved with a number of community programs, working with smallholder farmers in Indonesia to manage their on-farm agroforest trees sustainably and get FSC-certification. One of the main issues facing the sustainability of these farmers is economic as farmers can be cheated out of good prices for their wood, or prevented by complex government licenses from direct access to international markets, they are less likely to replant the trees after harvesting. In Kendari, where TFT and a regional NGO-partner, JAUH, is working with the KHJL (Cooperative for Sustainable Forests), we've seen direct evidence that farmers choose to plant more trees on their land when the prices go up due to better market access.

A lounger made at a small scale factory

The current community programs have focused on helping farmers sell graded square logs, rather than trees, and to sell directly to factories rather than middlemen. This has significantly increased the price farmers receive by up to 100% in some places. Similarly, if farmers could sell sawn timber, furniture components or even completed furniture directly to factories, more profit would be held by the farmers and more jobs would be created in the villages. At the same time, taking on such tasks can be complex in terms of gaining the necessary licenses, negotiating contracts with factories and learning to do the work to the quality standards required by international markets. I wanted to look for examples of community groups subcontracted to sell furniture to factories for the export market.

I was led to a wonderful example quite quickly--one of the community farmers' groups (LMDH) working with Perhutani's KPH Cepu. The group is called ‘Wani Tani Makmur' and is located in Nglebur village. Based on an agreement with Perhutani Cepu, after a cutting block has been harvested, community members can gather teak stumps & roots free of charge for use in furniture production. Two craftsmen with a great deal of experience working as subcontractors for furniture factories in Semarang & Jepara were brought to the group to train the members on how to make furniture & furniture components for factories supplying to the European market. An initial loan from Perhutani and downpayment & order from one factory in Semarang enabled the group to buy the necessary equipment and start producing while they learn!

Stumps and Roots gathered from KPH Cepu

The logs are sawn to a regular thickness and then the component is sketched onto the board to avoid knots and weak sections. The components are then cut and dried before assembly. The assembled products are then sanded, ready to be shipped to the factory to be packaged for Europe.

Initial sawing of the stumps

The Homemade Kiln

Components ready for Assembly

The example of the Wana Tani Makmur group shows that factories can subcontract some aspects of furniture production to farmer groups in villages-and farmers can make the furniture without an expensive factory of their own, and without too many huge machines & expensive equipment. However, as one of my TFT colleagues, Aris Priambodo pointed out, factories must be willing to take some teak which may have darker colours or other aspects of teak from stumps & roots! So factories must be very clear on the grade of wood expected from the farmers.

It's exciting to see that small, farmer owned and run businesses can take on the challenge of furniture production for the international market in their own villages-with Wana Tani Makmur as proof!

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Small Scale Furniture Production