Ghana gets wood, furniture testing lab

The Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG), an affiliate of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has set up Ghana’s first wood and furniture testing laboratory.

It has been created to test the quality, reliability and performance of wood products exported from the country, while ensuring that they meet international standards.

ISO certified

The facility, which is located at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region, is the third to be established on the continent after similar ones in South Africa and Egypt.

The Swiss government, apart from offering a grant for the establishment of the facility, has also trained three Ghanaian scientists from FORIG to ensure that there are always scientists at post to operate the facility.

A consultant from Switzerland is also expected in the country to provide further training to scientists who will be working at the laboratory when it becomes fully operational.

The facility has received accreditation from the International Standards Organisation (ISO 17025), which is supervising the transformation in the country’s wood and furniture industry, in order to give customers value for money.

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Special logo

The Director of FORIG, Prof. Daniel A. Ofori, made these known at the institute’s end-of-year review and planning meeting held at Fumesua near Kumasi.

He said a ‘position paper’ would be sent to policy makers, including the government, to request that the facility be made a referral centre for the furniture industry, as a means of saving the country from embarrassment on the international market.

All furniture that undergo full testing at the laboratory will be embossed with a special logo from FORIG to distinguish it from the others on the local market.

Prof. Ofori said although it was not mandatory for wood products to be tested, customers would find out soon that products that had undergone testing at the laboratory were safer and guaranteed good spinal care for customers.

A number of wood products that were recently tested failed to meet the required standards, raising concerns over their health implications on purchasers.

The new wood and furniture testing facility forms part of FORIG’s new strategy to produce demand-driven and commercially viable scientific products for the market.

Prof. Ofori said as a measure to manage knowledge in the industry, FORIG had come up with a number of publications, including 47 journals and 76 policy briefs to help shape policy direction in the sector.

He urged the government to accept the wood and furniture testing laboratory in order to make Ghana the preferred choice for all wood and furniture products from Africa.