A Comparative Study on Timber Productivity by Timber Firms in Ghana as Influenced by Ownership

Some of the major problems that confront the timber industry in Ghana are: The industries inability to diversify value-added products for export as well as decline in export volumes, prices, and number of sawmills which are actively engaged in the production and exportation of wood products especially the locally-owned. Furthermore, the capacity of forest sector has also reduced. These developments present a challenge to the local entrepreneurs in the face of globalization; and for that matter, the need to conduct an empirical comparative study into the issues to find solutions to mitigate them is now.The average number of products exported ware 3 and 4 by the locally- and foreign-owned firms respectively. In general, both categories of firms showed declines in eight low export prices of wood products from 2000 to 2008. Air-dried and kiln-dried lumber were the dominant products exported by both categories of firms. The foreign-owned timber firms exported ten high-priced timber products and eight by their counterparts; this makes the foreign-owned firms more diversified than the locally-owned firms. It is also worthy of note that, more than half (59%) of the foreign-owned firms exported between 4 and 6 products while less than one-fourth (23%) of the locally-owned firms exported the same number of products. Only one foreign owned firm exported products of 10 and above. Again the foreign owned - firms concentrated more on value added products while the locally-owned - firms specialized on primary products. This suggests that the foreign-owned firms are more efficient than their local counterparts.Statistical analysis conducted on all the products using (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test) indicated that the differences were not statistically significant. Finally, the timber firms in Ghana should take innovative measures to diversify and maximize the recovery rate of volume and value of timber products especially the locally owned–firms so that they can compete globally.