2011-16-09 - Mid August, Krivaja 1884, the biggest wood-processing company in Bosnia and Herzegovina, declared bankruptcy. "State-owned company" Kriva is also facing problems, as well as chairs and furniture production company Konjuh from Zivinica, northwest Bosnia, due to workers' strike, whose end is not in sight, reports Sarajevo daily newspaper Oslobodenje. Many attribute these problems of the Bosnian wood-processing industry to a series of legal and economic irregularities, especially in state-owned forestry companies which distribute raw material from state-owned forests. Association for Forestry and Wood-processing Industry at the Chamber of Economy of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina emphasizes the need for the forest law in the Federation, while companies managing state-owned forests failed to conduct forest licensing.
According to expert opinion, poorly executed privatization is identified as the main reason for this confusing state in the Bosnian wood-processing industry. Krivaja is said to owe over EUR 60 mil., the sum which surpasses property value. In the meantime, the government appointed the new CEO of its company, despite bankruptcy declared by the municipal court, on top of union efforts to organize and protect their rights, first of all millions in due or unpaid salaries. Konjuh workers started a protest march on foot from Tuzla to the capital, Sarajevo, to fight for their rights in the government. According to Semsa Alimanovic from the Chamber of Economy, reasons for this can be found in the loss of trust in the Bosnian wood-processing industry by Western and US consumers. "It has become impossible to deliver even 1,000 chairs, let alone larger quantities of other pieces of furniture to markets such as USA, to where we used to export millions of chairs. Only companies like Krivaja and Konjuh, with the capacity of several thousand employees, were able to do so," emphasizes Alimanovic. Manufacturers still complain not to have enough timber,
since by some mysterious ways it ends up in small sawmills, only to be exported to foreign markets as lumber. Presentation of Bosnian furniture manufacturers at the world's leading furniture fair in Koeln at the beginning of January came in question as well. Despite evident problems, official statistic shows increase in furniture export in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, according to the Chamber of Economy, literal interpretation of this statistical data can be misleading. These positive figures are not representative of increased export, but of payments received for previously delivered goods. All aforementioned issues are expected to be the topic of a series of meetings between the representatives of wood-processing industry and forestry with the relevant Bosnian institutions, which are scheduled to take place this month.