regional wood energy development programme in asia ... - CES (IISc)

The same is more or less valid for fuelwood traders with profit margins declining. Most
traders with their own trucks are now also becoming involved with general transport, but even here
the profit margin is becoming marginal because petrol, oil, spare parts and maintenance are
becoming increasingly more expensive.
Besides, the woodfuel traders have realized that, although there is a regular demand for
woodfuels, the woodfuel resources are dwindling and receding. As a result, gathering requires
more time and consequently woodfuels delivered to their depots are becoming more expensive.
The increase in price has resulted in a tendency for consumers to switch over to less expensive
alternatives such as rice husks and mesquite wood. This, in its, turn, has resulted in many
woodfuel traders switching to other trades, mainly in transportation services along the Yangon to
Mandalay highways. That the woodfuel trade is becoming less lucrative is also evident from table
4.2 which shows that the income from other sources is considerably higher than that of the
woodfuel trade. The general feeling among woodfuel traders and gatherer at present is that the
real beneficiaries of their efforts are the end-users such as the owners of cottage industries, etc.
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