International Industry and Trade Advisor to the Minister of Environment and Forestry, Laksmi Dewanthi, has said while Indonesia was successful in becoming the first country to earn the right to issue FLEGT licenses wood product manufacturers cannot relax.

He said the forestry sector must carefully monitor progress in other countries towards FLEGT licenses as competition will mount which means industry must continually make improvements to productivity and product lines.

In related news the Director of Forest Product Processing and Marketing in the Ministry Environment and Forestry, Rufi'ie, mentioned that since the launch of the FLEGT licensing scheme Indonesia has issued 14,548 licenses for the wood product exports to the European Union.

Rufi'ie reported that during 2016 the export value of wood products to all countries reached US$9.26 billion and for the first quarter 2017 the value of exports topped US$1.75 billion.

So far this year furniture exports have been very successful. In 2016 exports to EU were worth US$800 million and in the first three months after FLEGT licenses were issued exports were already US$300 million.