Analysis of standing timber sales (Borçka Directorate of Forestry Example)

The vast majority of forests in Turkey belong to government. There were several attempts to switch to planned, systematical production. These efforts started by the late Ottoman Empire era and still continue in present. One of the attempts was to enable production by tax-farmers buying the forests but due to lack of control and inspection it caused forest to end up damaged. After Turkish Republic was found; tax-farmer method was ended and forests were nationalized. Government prioritized forest villagers and corporations founded by forest villagers in forest production works. Lifting the custom duty from imported forest goods, over the years, caused General Directorate of Forestry (OGM) to lose his monopoly over domestic market and decreased its sales drastically. In order to increase market share and sales OGM switched to standing timber sales to reduce production costs. Borçka Directorate of Forestry was selected for this study. Study subjects were amount of Borçka Directorate of Forestry?s standing timber sales and depot sales, for the last five years, profit comparisons, and comparisons of profit, standing timber sales and depot sales of three different compartments chosen from Başköy Forest Sub-district. Results of this study demonstrated that even though there were no differences in production numbers, standing timber sale method increased profit over the years for Borçka Directorate of Forestry. Comparison of profit from 2006-2010 showed that standing timber sale is a lot more profitable than depot sale but on 2011, due to decrease in imported forest goods buyers turned to domestic market, thus, depot sales and prices were increased and surpassed standing timber sales. According to data collected from three chosen compartments, which also evaluated by tree species, from Başköy Forest Sub-district of Borçka Directorate of Forestry showed that factors that are being used to determine depot sale prices are more effective than tree species characteristics in terms of sale method profits. As a result of this standing timber sales for chestnut species, where depot sales would have been more profitable than standing timber sales, made more profit than depot sale. In conclusion, technical staff should prefer one of the sale methods that will balance the enterprise profit and community satisfaction. Key Words: Planned Operation of forests, Standing Tree Sales, Forest Products Marketing, Department of Forests Borcka