The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Chittagong

Acute shortage of timber for making furnitures has been hampering the production of the Fidco Furniture Complex (FFC) at Kalurghat industrial area in the city.

The FFC is one of the three full-fledged furniture manufacturing enterprise owned by Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC) under the Ministry of Forest and Environment has been struggling with supplying furnitures ordered by different public and private organisations due to non- availability of raw materials, officials said.

The Fidco has a reputation of making high-quality furnitures. The authorities usually collects and purchases required quantity of timber from the specified areas called "Kup" in the reserved forest which is allocated by the forest department.

Officials said they have been facing shortage of timber as the forest department did not allocate them "Kup" to collect timber in recent past.

Forest department sources said they were compelled to stop giving permit to the FFC authorities for collecting timber as number of mature trees in the reserved forests is due rampant destruction and felling of trees in the past.

FFC officials said they have cancelled many supply orders due to shortage of timber and were now trying to collect timber as much as possible by participating in the timber auction conducted by forest department.

But the quantity is not sufficient to complete the work of the pending orders as well as taking fresh orders from the interested parties.

The FFC authorities think that it would not be possible for them to supply furniture worth about Taka 12.15 crore to the government and non- government organisations within the stipulated time if they failed to manage the adequate quantity of timber.

Engineer Mohammad Shakil Ahmed, AGM of FFC told BSS that despite existing problems the organisation has been earning profit. The FFC has made a profit of Taka 2.39 crore in the last two years, he added.