The furniture route
The Nandasmo area: From seed to shop within a square
mile.
Nandasmo is one of Nicaraguas
We have chosen the little municipality Nandasmo as
the showplace for the furniture-industry in the Masatepe
area. In this village you will find the trees growing in
the coffee plantation, side by side with the handicraft
workshops and the furniture store. And the “sawmill” is
another neighbor who owns a chainsaw. So theoretically a piece of furniture can make the whole journey
from the seed to final product and costumer within a
single hectare, involving up to four enterprises. In
practice the wood will travel a little further, and we need
around to give a good view of the entire process.
smallest municipalities:
Area: 13 square kilometers
Population: 10.000
Economic activities:
Furniture and agroforestry (coffee,
fruits, wood, beans). The only large
business is a recently established
“Zona Franca” making cloth for the
US-market.
to take some few kilometers
First stop: Coffee farm
A mixed farm, where coffee still is
the main product, but fruits and and
wood are of increasing importance.
Background:
Coffee is the traditional product of the Masatepe area and the surrounding highlands
including Jinotepe and El Crucero. The
coffee brought wealth and power. About
Foto 1: Traditional coffee beyond
the shade of large trees.
1890 the midscale coffee farmers took over
the Liberal party from the Leon aristocrats,
and since they have been the most powerfull single group in Nicaraguan policy. We
can mention important names from history: Moncada, Somoza and Sandino, as well as
strong players in present politics Arnoldo Alemán and Herty Lewites.
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For different reasons coffee has been losing its
importance in the area. In Masatepe and Nandasmo the hills are too low (about 450 m) to
reach high yields and good quality.
Another hardship to the crop was the
PRONARCA coffee renewal program during the
1980 decade. It was thought that removing the
shade trees and changing the variety of the
plants yields would increase. But the new model
did not work in the lower highlands, so the
area lost both its impressing cover of old broad
crowned trees as well as many jobs.
Nevertheless, this setback brought new opportunities. The coffee farmers led new trees grow
Foto 2: Today many coffee farms are
up, and fortunately most of these were of speoverpopulated with trees
cies providing good wood, such as Cedro real
(Spanish Cedar), Laurel and Guanacaste. The
many small trees were much easier to handle for local carpenters, and offered a new
opportunity to the workforce which could not get employed in the coffee any longer.
At present, not only coffee farmers, but almost all landowners in the area are taking
care of the trees that germinate naturally in their farms. Basically they appreciate
trees, but surely they are also attracted by the good prices paid for wood in the area.
The typical farm has a mix of coffee bushes, fruit trees, banana plants and a lot of
trees. Often there are too many trees, so that the coffee is over shaded and the best
stems will not develop.
Second stop: “Chainsaw sawmill”
We go to a farm where a local wood trader has recently cut a tree, and
now his people are transforming the trunk into boards with his chainsaw –
which is the most common way to make sawn wood in the area.
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Background:
Only the biggest trees of the species
of Cedro and Guanacaste are sent to
a real sawmill in Masaya, so that
pieces for table decks and other special
uses can be cut properly. The Masatepe area, serving its three hundred
carpenter workshops with wood, does
not have a single sawmill, even not a
portable sawmill. We guess that more
than 90% of all the wood is processed
with chainsaws, without any adaptations
to improve the sawing quality.
Foto 3: Boards of Spanish cedar cut with a chainsaw
passing a rough drying process in the sun.
Using a chainsaw for this purpose is a very inefficient method. You spend much time
and energy to cut with little precision. The boards that come out have poor form and
unreliable dimension, which forces the carpenter to buy a 2 inch board, when he only
need 1 ½ or 1 inch.
A small portable sawmill should be a very good investment in the area. That nobody
does it is basically due to the very small scale of the enterprices. The typical wood
dealer is working alone, and buys from one to five trees at a time. The sawing is
done by another guy, who is the owner of just one machine, and does the work
himself together with a son. The trader we visit is one of the wealthiest, as he owns
two chainsaws and even has a little wood store in the backyard, run by his wife.
Furthermore the forest authorities require some paperwork and permits to allow to cut
a tree and bring it to a sawmill. The small scale dealers and the chainsaw-technique
can avoid this control, or survive by perhaps paying bribes. For the owner of a formal
sawmill it is too risky to challenge the authorities.
This persecution of the wood traders has no legal basis, as no law regulates the tree
cutting in farms – but in Nicaragua it is many times more important to be in power
than to be right.
Third step: Workshops in the centre of Nandasmo
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Around the central square of Nandasmo we find a broad variety of workshops, creating furniture of different qualities, imitations of fruits, baskets,
religious figures, kitchen tools etc. Your group can choose which kind of
workshop you to visit.
Background
A rough estimate says that
there are about 350 workshops in the municipalities
of Masatepe, Nandasmo and
Niquinohomo. The majority
of the workshops are family
enterprises that may hire
one or two guys from
among their neighbours. The
Foto 5: Wood drying in the street
medium size is 5-6 workbehind the church of Nandasmo.
ers, including the owner
and many of them are only working part of the year – when he has access to working capital, and up to Christmas.
The equipments are generally warn out machines installed in homemade arrangement to
get some kind of a table saw, or other semi-industrial solutions. When we add that
the wood was not properly sawn and dried, and that the workers are not skilled, nor
do they arise from a long carpenter tradition, it is not to expect that the final product
will be of top quality. Much of the furniture sold in the stores at the highway will not
last more than a year without shrinking or twisting.
However the centre of Nandasmo represents
one of the more advanced nucleuses. You
see a specialization in other products than
furniture, and some of the furniture makers
have installed kilns for drying and are developing their own designs.
Foto 4: Just a Few carpenters have installed drying
facilities based on sun energy.
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Fourth stop: Furniture
shops on the highway
Stopping at the furniture
shops that your group desire. There are stores with
selected and rather expensive products, and the typical stores specialized in a
narrow range of of chairs.
Foto 7: The very popular “rattan” style, made of solid Spanish cedar. The assembling is done with 4 inch nails, and
tapped with wickerwork.
Even the better ones will not last many years.
Background
The furniture sales are the visible face of the whole chain.
Their extension keeps growing in
direction of Catarina. The first stores appeared close to Masatepe. From there they
extended as a wave in direction East, invading first Nandasmo and now Niquinohoma.
On the other hand, to the West not a single store has appeared.
Looking at the increasing number of stores, and the remarkable growth in stores with
nice furniture, gives the impression that the furniture sector is doing very well, and
that its potential has still not been totally exploited.
Some dealers are also exporting. The first intents failed as the quality of the delivered
products did not match with the standards, wherefore the area lost its external marked.
By the time some of the better workshops are
establishing their own links to shops in Managua and in export markets.
But for the moment the major flow goes
through this great variety of stores, where people from mainly Managua make Sunday shopping trips to the Meseta area. In Catarina they
buy some plants, in San Juan some ceramics
and in Nandasmo-Masatepe their furniture. By
the way they enjoy the nice surroundings and
take a lunch in the Catarina viewpoint or eating
the famous Mondongo (cow tripe) soup of
Masatepe.
Foto 6: A typical installation, in this case a motorized
sander.
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The basis of the furniture boom of the Masatepe area is the active business culture of
the Masaya province, combined with the good access to wood. Compared with other
areas of Nicaragua there has been rather little foreign help to set up the industry, but
the few projects that have been have been well qualified.
The prospects for further growth are good, but there are a couple of obstacles that
should be removed little by little. We can mention:
 A better management of the trees in the farms, such as thinnings of the stand,
which gives more space to the well formed trees.
 Installing sawmills, or at least using steering frames on the chainsaws to utilize
the wood better and get a high quality of the sawn wood.
 Wood drying facilities for all the workshops, For local marked they may be simple
installations exploiting and controlling the drying effects of the sun and the wind.
 Network between the workshops that allows access to big orders.
 Internal systems to control quality, to make to area reliable for importers.
 Apprentice program for young carpenters
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The principal woods used in the area
Spanish cedar
Local name:
Botanical name:
Cedro real,
Cedrela odorata
A prominent member of the mahogany family, which
have been traded worldwide for centuries. It has been
used for luxury furniture, cigar boxes, doors, panels etc.
The Spanish cedar is appreciated for its red colour and
a characteristic smell of the mature wood. It is probably
A grove of mainly Spanish
due to these properties that the Spanish immigrants
cedar in a tobacco plantation
named it Cedar, although being a broadleaved tree.
Normally Cedar is used for conifers (needle leaved trees).
The wood is very light. When grown in the humid zones, such as Eastern Nicaragua, it is so soft that the screws can easily be pulled out if you do not prepare
the hole with raw plugs. The Masatepe variety is a bit harder.
Few carpenters in Masatepe chose the Cedar because of its fame. They prefer the
species, because it is very easy to work, and easy to obtain. Most of the Cedar
used in the area comes from young trees cut at the age of 8-10 years, and all
trunks and branches thicker than 5 inches (12 cm) are used. This would has not
got the real colour (the major part is still white sapwood, and the heartwood has a
shiny red, almost orange appearance), nor the stability and durability that has contributed to its fame.
The chainsawn Cedar boards are soled to
prices from 150 to 250 US$ pr. cubic meter
(0.5 $ a board feed).
If the carpenter wants to make luxury furniture
he will have to by the Cedar from the sawmill
at 450-550 US$ a cubic meter (1.20$ a
board feed), which is close to the prices at
the international market.
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A table board made of one solid peace of
Cedar.
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In the tropical rain the Spanish cedar is – and has always been - vary scarce.
This has led to an overwhelming worry about that the species is close the extinction.
Fortunately, this risk does not exit at all. In fertile farmlands the Spanish cedar sews
itself willingly in any shaded spot, for example beyond coffee bushes and fruit trees.
Masatepe and the surrounding highlands is just one of plenty localities in the Western and Central Nicaragua, where the Cedar is getting rather common.
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Laurel
Local name:
Botanical name:
Laurel (or Laurel hembra)
Cordia alliodora
Laurel is may be the main wood source of the area.
The tree is very common in al areas influenced by
agriculture, except very poor soils, and the wood
therefore easily available to moderate prices.
The wood has an attractive presentation made of light
to dark brown colours. The carpenters sometimes take
advantage of the white sapwood to make pretty combinations.
Another advantage is that the wood gets mature at a
very young age. A six year old tree has already excellent technical properties, and even the sapwood can
be used without mayor problems.
Laurel wood is denser than Cedar, but not heavy.
Furthermore it is strong and stable.
Although well known and appreciated in most of tropical America, Laurel
has never been traded as a precious wood. The mayor disadvantage
should be that the wood is not red or black, which has been the colours hunted during the past. For the traditional timber industry it is a
problem that the Laurel does not grow very big. The tree reaches rapidly a diameter of 30 centimetres (6-8 years), but then it declines
and will not get much more than 40 cm during rest of its life. That is
like a good pine or spruce forest, but not much compared to the traditional tropical timbers.
A young Laurel has survived a fire, and can now
rise without competition.
The Laurel is a typical pioneer tree.
fire or a man made destruction,
as ploughing, the wind brings in its
seeds, and young Laurels will
up everywhere. Once the forest is
lished the Laurel will not find
light to develop, and its presence
After a
such
small
sprout
estabenough
will
diminish.
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The name Laurel is another result of the conquestors reproduction of something they
have seen. Nor the wood, nor the botanic has any similarity with the classic Mediterranean Laurel tree, but a short time of the year the leafs get the same deep
green colour as the ones of the shrubby little tree that used for decoration in the
roman empire.
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