Performance and comparative advantage of wood products trade from India

The export of total wood products from India is 0.40% of total production, though India is importing 7107 thousand m wood products. This indicates the huge demand of wood products in India. The export quantity and value of different wood products from India is less than the import which showed negative balance of trade for wood products. Therefore the present investigation was carried out with the objective to study the composition, percentage share of India in the world, growth, variability and comparative advantage of export and import of different wood products from India. Present investigation was based on secondary data collected from the official website of International Tropical Timber Organization for the period from 2001 to 2021. The quantity and value of export and import of total wood products raised during study period. Among the wood products exported from India, highest export quantity is in case of plywood and veneer while the percentage share of Industrial round wood and swan wood in total wood product export was less. The highest quantity and value of import from India was for industrial round where as it was less for plywood and veneer. The quantity of export and import of total wood products, plywood and veneer from India increased significantly where as the import of all the wood products. The export quantity of total wood product (47.72%) having higher variability than the import quantity of total wood products (32.81%). The higher variability in export and import quantity in veneer, plywood and swan wood. The values of revealed comparative advantage and revealed symmetric comparative advantage indicated that India had higher comparative advantage in export of veneer and plywood than the other wood products during the study period.