GROWTH, COMPETITIVENESS AND SPECIALIZATION IN TRADE OF MAJOR WOOD PRODUCTS IN INDIA

The demand of wood and wood products is higher in India while supply is less, which results higher import of these commodities to meet the raising demand.Export of wood and wood products in the country found less than the import.Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to study the growth and instability in production, export and import of major wood products and also to study the comparative advantage and specialization in trade of these commodities for the period 1990-2022.The study based on secondary data collected from website of ITTO.To arrive at conclusion the CAGR, Cuddy Della Instability Index, RCA and RSCA index and Lafay index was used.The results of study showed that the production, consumption, export and import of industrial round wood, swan wood, veneer wood, plywood and total wood products increased significantly during 1990 to 2022.The import of industrial round wood, swan wood, veneer wood and plywood increased over a period of time than the export during the study period.The instability indices for export and import value of wood products found higher.The RCA and RSCA index for veneer wood and plywood export and export value of India showed that these commodities enjoying greater comparative advantage in world market than the other wood products during study period.India had trade specialization in plywood during the period 1992-1998 while India became despecialized in trade of swan wood, veneer wood and ply wood year 2010 onwards.