The Secretary General of Industry and Mines, Cristóbal Sánchez, emphasizes that the CRECE plan will promote the use of wood as an “environmentally sustainable, renewable, recyclable and socioeconomically beneficial” material.

Producers, owners and researchers welcome this opportunity to promote a wood industry for sustainable construction that promotes development in rural areas and ensures the survival of the forest masses.

The wood and furniture sector employs more than 15,000 people in Andalusia and generates a turnover of close to 1,400 million euros.

 

GRANADA, APRIL 20, 2023. The Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía has approved the implementation of the value chain plan CRECE Wood and Furniture Industry, aimed at “making efficient and sustainable use of natural resources and Andalusian knowledge for the use of wood in the manufacture of furniture and in the construction and renovation of buildings”. The document highlights the inclusion, for the first time, of poplar, which in the autonomous community is grown mainly in Granada – specifically in the Vega, the region of Guadix and Iznalloz – with some 4,000 hectares, and its use in the construction and rehabilitation of buildings. The plan is endowed with 7 million euros by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mines for the implementation of 38 initiatives, with which it is expected to mobilize a private investment of 34 million euros.

The plan highlights that “due to its historical uniqueness and its environmental and landscape impact, it is worth mentioning the poplar wood sector in the province of Granada, mainly used for pallets, packaging and furniture, and with a future projection for structural laminates in sustainable and industrialized construction”. In this context, it announces its support for the mixed poplar, pine and concrete products that the LIFE Wood for Future/Madera para el Futuro project is developing through the Andalusian Structural Wood Research Unit of the University of Granada (UIMA-UGR).

Among the ten collaborating entities of this plan, mostly business associations in the sector, include the University of Granada, the UIMA-UGR, which in the coming months will be installed in the San Isidro Sugar Factory, and the Forestry Association of Andalusia (AFA-Profor).

The Secretary General of Industry and Mines of the Junta de Andalucía, Cristóbal Sánchez, recalled that the Andalusian wood and furniture sector “has more than 4,400 industrial establishments, of which 1,800 correspond to the wood sector, employs more than 15,000 people and generates a turnover of nearly 1,400 million euros, according to data from 2020, in Andalusia. The community also ranks third among the most exporting regions. These data show its strategic nature and the importance of strengthening its industrial structure from the Andalusian Government”.

Among the actions set out in the plan are the promotion of the culture and use of Andalusian wood and the creation of new industrial ecosystems to promote sustainable and industrialized construction with local wood. “With this vision of value chain we defend an integral vision of the industry that allows to take advantage of all its potential, since it does not act only in the manufacturing phase, but covers the entire supply chain, from the design and concept of the product, to the transformation of raw materials and its commercialization”, Sánchez pointed out.

One of the aspects contemplated in the plan is precisely the promotion of the sustainable use of wood in the public sector. The objective is to promote the “exemplary role of public administrations, particularly the regional and local administration, regarding the use of wood in buildings, public facilities and infrastructure, in order to make visible the benefits and potential of forestry and the consumption of wood and its derivatives”. In this sense, the Agency of Housing and Rehabilitation of Andalusia (AVRA) is already promoting, in collaboration with the UIMA of the University of Granada, the promotion of a building of 30 houses for young people built with poplar wood in the area of La Azulejera in Granada.

The plan includes “raising awareness” among the public about the purchase of wood products manufactured in Andalusia, as an “environmentally sustainable, renewable, recyclable and socioeconomically beneficial” material. “It is to convey to the public the environmental benefits of consuming wood from sustainable forest management, so that the planned initiatives also include the dissemination of projects, results and good practices, as well as the promotion of the use of wood through the initiative Network of Industrial Cities of Andalusia,” concluded Cristobal Sanchez.

Satisfaction in the sector

The professor of the UGR Antolino Gallego, coordinator of the UIMA and the LIFE Wood for the Future project, said that “the commitment of the Andalusian Government for the Andalusian technical wood industry for building structures is a huge opportunity for the economy of rural mountain areas and for the survival of our forests and climate change mitigation.

“We also need concrete actions to promote the use of wood ‘made in Andalusia’ in the regional public construction and thus boost the market for these local industries,” stressed Gallego.

In the same vein, Victoria Carreras, president of the Association of Producers Marjal Chopo, which brings together more than seventy Andalusian foresters, mostly from Granada, stressed the importance of the plan to develop “a new industrial ecosystem for sustainable and industrialized construction, with a local quality wood from a sustainable forest management of our crops, the result of knowledge and professionalism”.

El presidente de AFA-Profor, Gabriel Gutiérrez, se ha felicitado por esta oportunidad “para desarrollar, por fin, una verdadera industria forestal sostenible en nuestra región, que incentive la colaboración público-privada, la formación especializada en el empleo rural y la calidad de vida de los habitantes de unas comarcas, las forestales, que ocupan más de la mitad del territorio de Andalucía”.

Gutiérrez ha recordado que la demanda de madera de calidad “impulsa nuevas posibilidades para el manejo del monte que se suman a las necesidades de conservación del mismo, por su capacidad para generar beneficios indirectos como la regulación de los ciclos del agua, la protección de los suelos, el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad o la lucha contra el calentamiento global del planeta”.

CRECE Industry Action Plan

Together with the wood and furniture plan, the Governing Council of the Junta de Andalucía approved last March 14 also the CRECE plans for basic and applied chemistry; the textile, leather and footwear sector; the metallurgical industry; and the building industry or industrialized construction.

Among their common objectives are the promotion of specialized training for workers, commercial expansion through the opening of new markets, adaptation to the circular economy and the reduction of the carbon footprint, the improvement of energy efficiency, the modernization of machinery, installations and processes, and the incorporation of digitalization and automation in their industrial processes.

The Secretary General of Industry and Mines, Cristóbal Sánchez, explained that “the Andalusian Government has launched a proactive industrial policy, landed sectorially, which is based on public-private collaboration and whose logic of intervention seeks to strengthen the value chains of industrial goods and services that are developed or can be developed in the Andalusian community. This industrial policy is articulated through the CRECE Industria Action Plan, in which the 32 most representative value chains of Andalusian industry have been identified and grouped into 19 sectorial plans. Of these 19 plans, which are designed hand in hand with the sectoral entities and are agreed together with CEA, UGT and CC OO, eight are already underway”.