Like many other raw materials, wood became more and more expensive in Egypt after the floatation of the Egyptian pound since it is mostly imported. According to World Bank statistics, Egypt imports more than 15 per cent of its wood from Russia, about 12 per cent from Finland, 11 per cent from Sweden, five per cent from China, and five per cent from the US.

The government has made attempts to promote local alternatives for manufacturers and others, notably by setting up the Higher Committee for Wood (HCW) in 2021 following a decision by Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli.

The HCW includes representatives of the ministries of industry, irrigation, the environment, agriculture, and communications, among others, and it conducts research and promotes the establishment of factories that can reuse agricultural waste like palm fronds or rice straw to manufacture medium density fibreboard (MDF), a combination of materials broken down into fine particles and reassembled with wax and a resin binder under high temperature and pressure.

It has also worked to increase the area of forest in Egypt, notably in the New Valley governorate, complementing the work of the Agricultural Research Centre in growing trees on an experimental basis in Giza, Aswan, and Damietta. These include camphor, cottonwood, and khaya (African mahogany) trees, with the idea being eventually to use them to make furniture.

One kind of tree that could grow well in Egypt is the paulownia, a fast-growing tree from East Asia. This yields high-quality wood suitable for furniture-making, and the trees can also withstand high levels of heat and humidity.  

The Egyptian Organisation for Wood and the Conservation of the Environment has been helping farmers grow paulownia trees. “In fact, the organisation is sometimes called the ‘Egyptian Paulownia Organisation’ because we mostly plant this kind of tree,” commented Ashraf Al-Orabi, founder and chair of Paulownia Egypt.

“It all started when I began growing these trees on my farm. Then I thought of growing a forest as a tourist attraction. I started searching for the fastest-growing tree in the world and discovered that it was the paulownia,” he added.

“After doing some research, I discovered that the tree’s seeds are difficult to get in Egypt. Paulownia trees go through a quiet phase in which they do not produce seeds. What encouraged me was that these trees produce good wood, and they could be a rich source of wood for Egypt,” he said.

Working with the Genetic Engineering Centre at Ain Shams University in Cairo as well as other institutions, Al-Orabi worked for four years on experiential trials before finally identifying the right paulownia tree to plant in Egypt.

“We found a type of paulownia that can endure weather of negative 10 degrees to 50 degrees and developed seeds that produce trees that only take eight years to grow, a quarter of the average time a regular tree needs before it can yield wood,” he added, noting that the organisation was set up in 2016.

They plant six other types of tree, but the paulownia is the fastest-growing, explaining the demand. Members of the organisation today include professors of agriculture from Cairo, Ain Shams, Suez, Zagazig, and Al-Azhar universities as well as consultants.

It aims to produce more wood in Egypt by growing trees and encouraging ordinary people to grow them as well. A further aim is to raise awareness of the importance of increasing green areas in Egypt, Al-Orabi said.

NATURAL RESOURCES

“Egypt has many natural resources, but it doesn’t have wood. This is in contrast to Europe, where forests are common because of the wet climate,” Al-Orabi said.

“Our aim is to provide Egypt with an additional source of income by growing forests in the country. These can also help to combat climate change,” he added.

The organisation has set practical examples of planting forests. “We have already grown a forest in Giza with a group of young people who helped to fund the project. It is the first forest of its kind in Egypt and the Middle East,” Al-Orabi said.

The group also posts information on its Facebook and YouTube pages on how to grow and take care of trees.

“We have been experimenting with about 20 types of tree, including mahogany, poplar, camphor, and beech. We have imported neem trees like the Indian Neem, which grows faster than other varieties. We have also bought silver poplars, khaya trees from Senegal, and rare hybrid camphor trees from the US that are fast growing.”

Planting trees can help to moderate underground water levels in some types of soil. “We have succeeded in planting trees in all the governorates of Egypt, albeit mostly on private farms,” he added.

The group has also started manufacturing wood products from the trees. “We have made the first plywood board to be manufactured in Egypt and been given the patent rights. The plywood that is available in Egypt is generally all made from imported wood. But ours is purely Egyptian, made from Egypt-grown wood,” Al-Orabi said, adding that the work was done under the supervision of the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s furniture modernisation department in Cairo and Damietta.

“We have also made MDF and plan to make parquet flooring next year using Egyptian paulownia wood. We’re waiting for an increase in production once more trees have grown to maturity.”

Thus far, they have planted some 200 feddans of forest in Egypt. The paulownia forest in Giza is 100 feddans in area, and the other 100 feddans are distributed in other governorates.

Some furniture factories in Damietta now use the wood and have praised it as being easier to work than many imported types. Eventually, the wood could replace 80 per cent of the imported wood used in Egypt. It is waterproof, making it ideal for boats, walls, and parquet floors. It does not burn easily, and the trees can be grown using treated waste water.

“To yield wood, a tree must have a radius of 40 cm, and an average tree could take from 30 to 80 years to reach that width. A regular fast-growing tree would take an average of 15 years, while a paulownia would only take eight years if it is grown in sandy soil and an average of four years if grown in clay soil,” Al-Orabi said.  

 “Land owners come to buy seeds from us and ask for our help in planting trees on their land. Other people take our seeds and plant them in front of their houses. Some municipalities ask for our assistance to plant trees, as do many ministries and governmental institutions,” he commented. “Investors reclaiming desert land are planting it with our trees.”

Al-Orabi and his team have also planted trees in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. They will be working in Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Morocco soon.

One of the drawbacks they face is red tape and the high cost of growing trees. Other drawbacks include the eight-year investment period required.

Paulownia seeds cost an average of LE20 to LE30. A tree yields wood worth about LE2,000. A feddan (4,200 square metres) of land can take about 500 trees. It would cost about LE200,000 to grow the trees, yielding some LE1,000,000 in profit, Al-Orabi said.

A land owner wanting to plant trees should go to his local branch of the organisation, which will then examine the soil and irrigation. If technical assistance is needed, it will provide it free of charge.

“Since the time of Mohamed Ali in the early 19th century, Egyptians have been attempting to grow more trees. Generally speaking, this has taken an average of 30 years and has needed funds that only the government could provide. This has explained the failure to grow most forests in the past,” Al-Orabi said.

“To be able to meet market need today, we need to plant trees on thousands of acres of land. We will be able to do this with the help of the government and the private sector. Things are in process, but they will take some time,” he added.

Reducing paperwork could make it easier for investors to buy land and grow trees on it.

All this can also have positive climatic consequences. “The more forests there are, the more rain there will be, and the paulownia tree absorbs large quantities of carbon dioxide,” Al-Orabi said.

“We would like to see a culture of tree-planting prevail in Egypt, especially of the paulownia tree. We would like to see farmers plant trees on at least 30 per cent of their land, knowing that this will be a source of income for them in the future.”

FAIRER PRICES

“The types of wood mainly used in Egypt at present include Russian timber, beech, MDF, and plywood,” said Alaa Nasreddin, a member of the Wood Industry Chamber, adding that Russian timber, beech, and MDF are most in demand.

“Egypt imports soft wood from Russia and European countries like Finland, Sweden, Latvia, and Romania. It imports hard wood from countries like Romania, Croatia (beech), the US, and Canada (oak),” he said. “It spends some LE0.5 million on plywood,” he added.

Home-grown wood could be a major bonus for industry. “The paulownia and similar trees have not yet been tested to prove their large-scale feasibility. It is still in the experimental phase,” Nasreddin said, adding that it could take 10 years of planting to see whether a wood is suitable for manufacturing furniture.

“The drawbacks in importing wood have been related to the depreciation of the pound, the difficulty of arranging collection bills at the banks, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the high costs of shipping,” he said.

In his view, the solution would be to “facilitate investment by encouraging foreign investors, especially those from African countries, to invest in wood supplies for industry. The feasibility of joint projects and applying the trade agreements of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa countries could also be studied.”

Omar Al-Sewifi is a wood merchant in Giza who has been working in the field for 30 years. He has many examples of the types of wood customers ask for.

“The wood we use the most is the mosky type, another name for Russian timber, which is used to make wardrobes and bed slats. The thicker types are used to make door posts and other fittings. There is lumber or counter wood used for bedrooms and wardrobes, which is different to the Kheir Allah wood [a locally made MDF from the Kheir Allah district], which is less expensive at around LE300 per metre,” he said.

“There is also the meranti type of MDF and Korean, Thai, and Chinese plywood. The type that is mostly demanded by Egyptian customers is MDF because it has multiple uses like in doors that can then be finished with oak veneer.”

 “A metre of MDF eight mm is around LE250, a metre of MDF 4.2 mm is LE150, and a metre of MDF three mm is LE105 to LE110. The two mm MDF is LE80 per metre. Korean three mm plywood is about LE120 per metre,” Al-Sewifi said.

In the past, there was a lot of demand for beech plywood, regular plywood, and meranti wood, an Asian hardwood that is not available now. What has replaced them is MDF, first imported to Egypt in 1997. There is Egyptian MDF which is expensive, Italian MDF, Spanish MDF, and Turkish MDF, which is widely used in Egypt. Widths can reach 18 mm, especially for Turkish and Thai MDF, he said.

A metre of Chinese plywood used to be around LE50 but is now LE200. In 2002, a metre of Russian timber was LE750. Today, prices range from LE10,500 to LE11,000.

“Three years ago, we heard that trees had been planted in Damietta, but after that there was no further news about it. There should be forests in Egypt that we could buy our wood from, because this would be cheaper for us and our customers than the imported wood we buy at present. This would be especially the case if it were grown in large quantities and was suitable for furniture-making. If the wood that is grown here was the same quality as the types we import, I would certainly buy it,” Al-Sewifi said.

“The price of wood is on the rise, and we should import it from different countries at cheaper prices if possible. Imports of wood could be centrally organised, for example, putting an end to the practice of some merchants who import wood and store it to sell it later at higher prices,” he concluded.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 21 July, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.