Elva Çaushi*, Pandeli Marku
Faculty of Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania
*Corresponding author email: alcaushi@abcom.al
Abstract
There are about 300 companies producing furniture and about 250 small and medium enterprises (SME) producing sawn timber, which operate in the field of wood industry in Albania. This wood industry production is being challenged by the increasing demand in the domestic market, ranging from kitchen furniture to office and schools furniture, bedroom furniture, doors, windows, and saw timber in different dimensions. The production from the wood industry can fulfill about 80% of the domestic market demand. The remaining 20% of domestic market needs in wood furniture are afforded by import. Small entities do not make serious investment in technology. Big enterprises such as Ardeno in Tirana, Biçaku in Durres, Shaga in Tirana, Ital-wood in Elbasan, Dafinori in Shkoder, etc., have made remarkable investments in their technology. They have installed several mechanized lines of production. So, Ital-wood has invested in a mechanized saw timber production line; Bicaku in wood panels coated with PVC lines; Dafinori in a wood handrail production technologic line; Ardeno in wooden chairs production technologic lines, and Shaga in the production of furniture with particle panels. These enterprises are using modern numerical command machines, vacuum presses for gluing PVC, cutting equipment for panels with laser ray, finishing lines with electrostatic field, modern lines of pneumatic transport for wood dust etc. These investments in new technologies have increased the quantity and quality of native wood products.
Keywords: wood, furniture, timber, market, company, technology, investment
