THE LOUISIANA SECONDARY SOLID WOOD-PRODUCTS-INDUSTRY

Louisiana's forests represent an important resource for the state, bot h in terms of income to landowners and as inputs to the forest product s industry. The harvest of timber, which is Louisiana's number one agr icultural crop both in terms of gross income and value-added processin g, supports a solid wood forest products industry that consists of alm ost 650 separate primary and secondary manufacturing establishments. T otal 1995 sales by Louisiana's primary industry (lumber, plywood, and other semi-processed products) is estimated to be $1.85 billion and 19 95 sales for the secondary forest products industry (furniture, cabine ts, millwork, and other finished products) is about $648 million. Rese arch has shown that the secondary wood products industry in Louisiana has significant potential for expansion and development. Louisiana ran ks low in adding value to its wood products resources and in other pro ductivity indicators relative to neighboring states with similar resou rce bases and industry structures. However, to attain this potential, a wide variety of issues must be researched and understood such as exi sting consumer market trends, location decision criteria, raw material s availability and applicability, labor force skills and training requ irements, target market identification, recruitment and retention stra tegies, and sources of competitive advantage. This paper attempts to a ddress some of these issues.