Local wooden pallet industry booming

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna, Philippines – The country’s wooden pallet industry is booming.

A pallet is a platform device that holds one or more cargo packages in a group. It allows a load to be transferred and stored as a unit.

Along with forklift trucks, pallets make it much easier to move and store all sorts of commodities around the world, helping tens of thouands of companies save time, labor, space, and money.

In the Philippines, the surge in pallet trade began with the onset of global industrialization in the late 1990s. Today, Region IV-A (Calabarzon) alone has 30 pallet makers producing 2,000 pallets a day.

To help sustain the sector’s growth, the Los Baños-based Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI), along with other agencies, is pitching in its support for wooden pallet producers.

“The institute helps the sector in varied ways,” said FPRDI’s Lolita Villavelez, as reported by the institute’s Rick Araral.

1. The institute serves as the country’s only testing center for wooden pallets. Through its testing facilities, it helps pallet makers come up with products that meet global standards of performance.

2. As a member of the Bureau of Products Standards-Technical Committee on Pallet for Unit Load of Material Handling, it helps review ISO (International Standardization Organization) standards to formulate the Philippine National Standards (PNS) for pallets.

“To help producers see which type of wood fits which type of pallet, we have classified 78 Philippine wood species (commercial, lesser-known, and industrial tree plantation species) into different strength grades,” Villavelez pointed out.

3. FPRDI conducts research for the industry.

Right now, it is studying how to make more durable pallet components using processed wood. Made of woodwastes, chemical additives, and binders, processed wood is less likely than ordinary wood to be attacked by insect pests.

Those interested in going into wooden pallet production may call FPRDI at (049)536-2586/2377 or email at fprdi@laguna.net. –Rudy A. Fernandez (The Philippine Star)