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Marketing

In August 2019 the Wood Products Extension Department started a multi-year grant project to create a NC Statewide Marketing Team that would seek to improve the marketing of forest and wood products in North Carolina. The grant ends on July 31,2023.

Grant Team Members

The team members that were paid by the grant to be the team members included three from NCSU-Harry Watt, Phil Mitchell and Frederik Laleicke, two from the NC Forest Service-Pricilla Morris, Robert Ross, and West65thInc-Carla Harper.

Regional Meetings

The Statewide Team organized over thirty regional meetings held in each of the thirteen NC Forest Service districts to discuss problems in marketing and opportunities. In 2020 these meeting were held online in Zoom meetings. In 2021 these meeting were held on site.

Project Highlights:

  • Visits to existing businesses, startups and prospects-the team visited a large number of businesses during the project to discuss issues specific the company visited. Many companies experienced issues related to the Covid 19 shutdown and reopenings, with many problems related to labor, problems in receiving materials and political trade issues. For many companies there were high prices for products if they could be produced, but this was not the case for all. In 2020 and into 2022 there were boom times for pine sawmills and furniture factories. By 2023 pine lumber prices returned to long term averages and furniture sales were below average.
  • Pulpwood markets tanking-the closure of the large paper mills in eastern TN and then later the Evergreen Canton mill in 2023 has tanked the pulpwood market in Western NC. The damage to forestry is just beginning with no new market able to take the volume of pulpwood that the Canton mill consumed.
  • New startups-the project did work with several startup forest and wood products businesses that are in operation and expected to be successful. These businesses included a small pine sawmill, a millwork company and a cross laminated timber panel manufacturer.

Documents available for downloading that focus on marketing or include marketing: