Daily Express Subscriber
Sign in to your account.

IT was once regarded as a cheap wood good only for producing chips for pulp and paper production as well as pallets and packing materials.However, Acacia mangium is now one of the most sought after tree species in Sabah.

Research and development as well as technology advancement has made it possible for acacia to be used for producing garden and outdoor furniture products as well as other wood-based semi-finish and finished products.

Since then, one by one, the State furniture industry players started making use of acacia as one of their wood sources for producing furniture products.

The depletion of tropical timber supply, coupled with the world's good acceptance to products made of acacia which is recognised as a plantation timber species, have gone full swing to make acacia as their main source.

Sabah is now one of the world's producers and exporters of acacia-based garden and outdoor furniture products. Its markets include the United States (US), Europe, Middle East, Australia and the latest, China.

"Nowadays we mostly use acacia for export. Many of our members are using acacia wood.

Last time we used forest timber but because forest timber are under control we have converted to plantation timber species to ensure sustainability," says Sharon Tsang Siu Lan, President of the Sabah Furniture Association (SFA).

Forest plantation only takes about 12 to 15 years to produce suitable wood for the furniture production purpose, meaning it can be sustainable if the forest plantation operators can manage properly by planting every year.

To produce acacia-based furniture products requires a tree that has reached a maturity age of at least 12 years old.

Sabah is already well-known in the European market for its outdoor furniture, Tsang said, adding that the acacia as a main material for outdoor furniture products is well accepted in the European market.

"Now we are also pushing for the China market where there is a very good potential for our products.

The response has been quite good and we already started to receive order this year," said Sharon, who also operates a furniture business Worldtrend Garden Furniture Sdn Bhd at Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) in Telipok.

It is part of Sharon's family business Borneo Tsang Furnishing Sdn Bhd, an established local wooden furniture producer based in Tawau that specialises in acacia wood sourced from local managed forest plantations.

Established in 1983 as a family business involved in interior renovation for the upmarket hotel industry, Borneo Tsang Furnishing started specialising in garden and outdoor furniture-making in the early 1990s.

The company embarked on researching and developing acacia hardwood as the nature-friendly alternative to traditional hardwood in the late 1990s.

"Borneo Tsang Furnishing started developing acacia-based furniture about 10 years agoÉ actually we have tried a few plantation wood species but we finally decided to use acacia which we find more suitable," she said.

The rest were either too soft for outdoors, she said. In year 2000 the company started to exhibit its acacia-based furniture products during an exhibition in Kuala Lumpur.

"When we put our furniture set there, many people came to us and asked us what teak is thisÉbecause the colour and the wood looked much better than the Indonesian plantation teak," she recalled.

So we try to promote it, she said, adding after a few years the buyer from United Kingdom started to promote acacia furniture as a Queen environment product.

Sharon said it was a bit hard at the earlier stage of promoting the acacia-based furniture products because the people are still new to such products.

"Because they are still not used to it and they are used to tropical timbers as material for furniture.

They still don't know whether a plantation timber can be used for making outdoor furniture or not," she said.

Some of the buyers then took samples from us and then put it outdoor for one year and they were satisfied that it is very good as garden furniture.

"We then exhibited our products in Germany. The first year after we exhibited it in Germany we received orders alreadyÉsome of our potential buyers still do not trust acacia then, but when they know other buyers are buying acacia then they also followed," she said.

"Now they know what is acacia and when they come they want acacia."

According to Sharon, her members in the SFA exported altogether almost 600 to 700 containers of acacia-based furniture products a year.

"When we first promoted acacia furniture products to the market, Europeans think they are cheap wood, low-class furniture," she said.

"Now almost all the popular big furniture shops, in the UK especially, now promote acacia-based furnitureÉso you can see the potential is very good."

Because maintenance (for acacia-based furniture products) is very easy, she explained.

"After having been under the sun for quite a long time, you can just sand the surface and oil it and the wood will look like a brand new again."

In Europe, acacia-based garden furniture can last up to more than 10 years because there is no extreme heat from the sun and no heavy rain there, she said.

"In the tropical countries it can only last up to five to six years," she said, while further explaining that unlike rubber wood it cannot be made as garden furniture, and it is more suitable as indoor furniture.

"Acacia wood is now the second after teak for garden furnitureÉ(because) tropical wood is a bit too hard that will cause it to crack after placed under the sun for too long," said Sharon.

Tropical wood is not easy to get now because of the government policy that controls harvesting of tropical trees.

Apart from Borneo Tsang Furnishing and Worldtrend Garden Furniture, another local company Innovatory Furniture Sdn Bhd, also based in KKIP, now produces acacia-based do-it-yourself (DIY) furniture components solely for the renowned Swedish company Ikea.