COMPARISON OF WESTERN BLACK SEA AND EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES IN TERMS OF RAW MATERIAL PREFERENCES

The rapid increase in population and industrialization in the world causes an increase in the use of natural resources. Accordingly, the need for forest resources and forest products is increasing. The current percentage of forest areas (27.5%) in Turkey is more than the surface area of many countries. Among the study areas, the Western Black Sea Region is a very rich (64%) region in terms of forest assets. In the other study area (Eastern Mediterranean), this value is around 40%. The diversity of these areas in terms of forest assets and tree species has led to the differentiation of forest products industries established in the relevant regions. In line with these determinations, the aim of study has been determined as to research the raw material sources and basic characteristics preferred of the Western Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean forest products industries and to compare them with each other. For this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to the forest products enterprises of the Western Black Sea (Bartın, Bolu, Düzce, Karabük, Kastamonu, Zonguldak) and Eastern Mediterranean (Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Mersin, Osmaniye) provinces regarding raw materials. SPSS data analysis program was used for data analysis. The results of the survey showed that the areas of activity that Forest Products operators are most interested in are the timber industry (36%) in the Western Black Sea Region and the furniture sector (42%) in the Eastern Mediterranean. Again, it was understood that the two most preferred raw materials were pine (29%) and beech (25%) in the Western Black Sea Region, and pine (31%) and oak (20%) in the Eastern Mediterranean. The analyzes revealed that the Western Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean forest products industries sourced the most raw materials from the General Directorate of Forestry at the rates of 51% and 57%, respectively. At the same time, it was determined that the branches of activity in which the forest products sectors sell the most are listed as furniture, construction, transportation and iron-steel industries, from high to low for both regions. Finally, within the scope of the study, it has been determined that the views of forest products operators about the difficulties encountered in raw material supply and the advantages in the Western Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean regions, which have quite different characteristics, are quite homogeneous.