Sawmilling in Croatia Part 2 – Croatian Sawmilling in New Millennium

This paper presents an overview of the current status of the Croatian sawmilling industry and a future forecast. This overview is based on data available regarding the current status, including fragments (facts) and citations from various studies and papers that describe the scene of events in the near future. Croatia has a long tradition in wood processing. The tradition of wood processing in Croatia was founded on the first industry capacities - sawmills and sawmilling products. In the new millennium, many factors affected technology and changes in the Croatian sawmilling industry. The most significant changes were in the quality of logs, development of domestic and global (foreign) final wood processing, as well as the general development of machinery and equipment. Generally, wood industry sector in the Republic of Croatia is marked by a large number of small enterprises and a relatively small number of large manufacturers. The most evident problem is the large capacity of sawmill industry, which is still three times greater than the allowed annual cut in our forests. The bulk of sawmilling products, manufactured in our sawmills, are exported primarily to the countries of West Europe. Export is, therefore, a condition for survival of sawmill industry in a situation where there is a relatively low demand in the domestic market. However, the strategic policy of the State and wood sector is to change the export structure of wood products in favour of products of higher quality of final wood processing.