FROM Jakarta (ANTARA News): - Indonesian plywood producers have started eying the rapidly expanding market in India in an effort to restore Indonesia`s domination in the international trade of the commodity.

Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Wood Panel Association (APKINDO) Abbas Adhar said in Jakarta Sunday that his side has been seriously working on the Indian market. It will soon send an intelligence marketing team to obtain complete information to reach the Inddian market.

It was disclosed in a discussion of the International Tropical Wood Organization (ITTO) in November last year that India`s wood imports had increased by 10 percent.

Each year India imported 16 million m3 of wood, while its domestic consumption reached 85 million m3.

"India had been importing wooden products from many countries, but Indonesia`s wood products to that country has yet to reach some significance," Abbas said.

He said Indonesia was able to fill gaps in India, as it needed a great deal of hardwood. "As most of the Indonesian products imported to that country comprised softwood," Abbas said.

He also said India needed a great deal of plywood of a thickness of 2.7 millimeters. "It just happened that this type of products are leading products in Indonesia, compared to those from Malaysia