John F. Yanagida, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, UH-CTAHR
J. B. Friday, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, UH-CTAHR
Richard Bowen, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, UH-CTAHR
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It is important to assess how the forest industry has changed since the last benchmark (1993 GACC report). The purpose of this project is to determine the current economic value of Hawaii's forest industry. The project will also determine technical efficiency/inefficiency from a sample of tree-farms. .
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Contact Dr. John F. Yanagida (jyanagid@hawaii.edu)
Phone: 808-956-2809
Fax: 808-956-6539
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OBJECTIVES
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Albizia posts ready for treatment from a thinning operation on a Hawaii tree farm |
- Determine the current economic value of Hawaii's forest industry.
- Obtain costs of production and input use for small scale tree farms.
- Develop methodological framework for estimating frontier functions incorporating temporal and spatial features.
- Estimate efficiency for sample of tree farms.
- Identify factors contributing to efficiency or inefficiency in production.
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APPROACH
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Following the 1993 GACC (Governor's Agriculture Coordinating Committee) study, the Hawaii forestry industry will be divided into formal and informal segments. Three surveys will be used: timber survey, landowners survey, and contractors survey. Extrapolation from sample to the population involves estimating the proportion of the industry represented by the sample based on information from industry experts and secondary data sources. Current market sales can be compared with the 1993 GACC study to assess market directions and identify market opportunities based on comparative/competitive advantage and possible niche markets. A second survey will be developed to obtain cost of production data from 30-40 tree farms. Budgets will be constructed for these tree farms. Stochastic frontier function approach or DEA analysis will be used to measure technical efficiency/inefficiency. The choice of estimation procedure will depend on whether farms produce a single product or multiple products. Matching stage of production (age of stand) for each of the key production years is critical. The analysis increases in complexity as the number of tree species grown and products increase. Factors contributing to efficiency/inefficiency will be identified from the one-step procedure used to estimate the original frontier parameters.
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