Problems and Prospects of the Chestnut Timber Chain in Tuscany

Costs and industrial timber. In the first case, regional manufacturing of raw material mostly covers the domestic needs. As for industrial uses, in spite of the high demand for quality timber, the scarce development and quality of production also affects the manufacturing stages. The main reason lies in the everlasting difficulty of supplying chestnut timber assortments for industrial purposes. The production is extremely inadequate, especially in terms of quality. The Italian raw material can be only partially qualified as industrial timber, because of the lack of suitable size and quality requirements. Accordingly, industrial timber is increasingly being imported from foreign markets. The aim of this paper is to assess whether the growth of local supply can be sustained by first-phase processing enterprises in terms of quality timber assortments. The survey analyzed the structure of several enterprises located on Monte Amiata (SI) and the Colline Metallifere (GR). Data necessary for gaining more knowledge about the first step in the timber-forest chain were acquired from questionnaires submitted to the owners of the firms operating in this sector. The information acquired included firm size, source of woody material, availability and annual quantity of wood sales, prices of assortments, and machinery and equipment owned by each firm. The interviews shed light on several aspects such as the interest in local woody material supply in spite of difficulties in sourcing the same. The sample consisted of small-sized enterprises, family-run entities, poorly equipped for machinery, mainly represented by posts marketed in the local area. As for the goal of this survey, it must be pointed out that the majority of firms processing chestnut timber are located on Monte Amiata, where chestnut stands are one of the main forest types; while in the Colline Metallifere, these firms focus more on oak species since chestnut plays a marginal role and no timber trading activity exists among the firms found in the two surveyed areas.