Category: Marketing

By Scott Lyon, Graduate Student. March 25, 2010.

The potential for US forest products in international markets such as Central America has not been historically addressed. With a combined population of more than 40 million residents, Central America offers many business opportunities for US hardwood and softwood lumber producers. Our effort will focus on the most important economies in Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. We believe that the increased rates of housing, tourism infrastructure, and public infrastructure will need a massive supply of hardwood and softwood lumber that the region itself will not be able to fulfill in the near future. Also, we have found that local protectionism policies in favor of the national forests of these countries would benefit the imports of wood products, especially from the United States. The concern of harvesting tropical forests also provides an opportunity to increase sales of US temperate species. Our goal is to create an export handbook of Central America for Virginia wood products industries.

During the first six months of the project, the research team conducted a literature review and face-to-face interviews with governmental officials in Panama and Costa Rica to determine the current demand of local production, the potential for future production, and any trade barriers for new importers.

Continue reading “Wood Innovation Research Group Reports in first Semester of Research Project funded by USDA-FSMIP”

Professors Bob Smith and Henry Quesada and graduate student Scott Lyon are heading to Panama and Costa Rica from February 24 until March 5 to initiate field research on an USDA project. The project has as main output to identify business opportunities to place Appalachian wood products in Central American countries. The project has been funded by the Federal State Market Improvement Program (FSMIP) and it is a two year project. Please stay alert for an update on preliminary results for this project.

During October 2009, Henry Quesada, assistant professor at the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech in conjunction with Eva Haviarova, assistant professor at the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue University organized two workshops in International Marketing for the Forest Products Industry. The workshops were designed after field research made by Quesada during Fall 2008 and Spring 09. This research detected that wood products industry, especially from the primary sector, were strongly considering increasing their sales by exporting but they lacked the knowledge to benefit from marketing opportunities in foreign markets. Based on this need, the workshops offered a valuable agenda that covered the following subjects to capitalize on these opportunities: an update of the current situation of the wood products industry, an introduction to international marketing principles, tips on international marketing intelligence, certified forest products global opportunities, and logistics and transportation issues. At the end of each workshop, a panel was assembled to discuss the topics and gather information for future educational and research opportunities.

 

 

The first workshop took place on October 8 at the Vincennes University campus in Jasper, IN with an attendance of 33 people. Quesada, and Professor and Associate Dean of Engagement at Virginia Tech, Bob Smith, participated as speakers. Matt Bumgardner from the USDA Forest Service, Mike Seidl from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and Mark Cooper from the Department of Commerce participated as speakers as well. The second workshop was held in Princeton, WV in October 20 at the WERC’s facilities with an attendance of 16 people. Participating In this opportunity besides Smith and Quesada, Al Schuler from USDA Forest Service, Joel Stopha from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and Josef FellHofer from CVI collaborated as speakers.

 

 

Both workshops were highly evaluated by the attendees and interesting discussion about future direction for the wood products industry regarding how to better profit from international marketing opportunities were drawn. The workshops were sponsored by the Wood Education Research Center, The Dubois County Development Center in Southern Indiana, The Indiana Hardwood Lumber Association, The Department of Forestry and natural Resources at Purdue University, Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia Tech, The Sloan Industry Center at Virginia Tech, Center for Marketing and Business Management at Virginia Tech, and the Virginia Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services.

Please contact Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu for more details.