製材業者のニーズに関する基礎的研究 : 群馬県下仁田地域における事例  [in Japanese] A Basic Study of the Needs of Saw Millers in Shimonita Region, Gunma Prefecture  [in Japanese]

製材業者のニーズを把握することは,素材供給者に様々なメリットを与えたり,新たな経営戦略の構築を補助したりするので重要である。製材業者のニーズの研究において,ニーズそのものや把握方法などは未だ解明できていない。特にニーズの視点からの原木の質に関する研究が十分になされていない。そこで本論文の目的をニーズの視点からの原木の質の明確化と今後ニーズとなりうる要因の明確化とした。本論文では製材業者が原木を購入するときにどのようなことを重要視しているのかを,数量,原木の質(本論文では,曲がり,節の状態,年輪の状態,材の色を取り上げた),質以外の原木に求める要望(本論文では,生産場所の情報,葉枯らし材である証明,素材生産業者,立木を生産する者,森林認証,施業経歴を取り上げた)に注目して調査を行った。具体的には,群馬県下仁田地域における国産材を取り扱っている製材業者に対して,原木の質(AHPによる分析)と質以外の要望(単純集計による分析)についてアンケートと聞き取りによる調査を行った。また,製材業者のニーズは,製材規模により異なると考え,規模別に分類して検討した。分析の結果,製材業者の重要視する要因は高いものから曲がり,年輪,材の色,節,数量の順番だった。質以外の原木に求める要望として,生産場所の情報や葉枯らし材である証明を求める製材業者の割合が高かった。

The supplier of material, such as the forest owner and the wood-raiser, can respond to the buyers' market by understanding the needs of saw millers and can take a sales strategy in which they add to raw wood the value of the environment and of the material native to Gunma. It is important for the supplier of material to understand the needs of saw millers from three points of view : merchandize, information and service. The needs of saw millers mean the things that they think necessary. Here, the 'information' includes those other than the quality of the material wood (timber volume, geometric feature, and material, etc.) and that of the business ground and the material producers (thereafter, it is called non-qualitative demands). Thus in this study, we tried to clarify the needs of the saw millers based not only on the volume and the quality of the timber (the viewpoint of the annual ring, knot, and taper, etc.), but also the non-qualitative demand (information about the forest owner, the log production dealer, FSC, background of forest management, etc.) as the first step towards the forest management for income stability. Specifically, by obtaining information by means of questionnaires to the saw millers exploiting domestic timber in the Shimonita region, Gunma Prefecture, I clarify the needs from the viewpoint of the volume and the quality of the timber by AHP, and also from the viewpoint of the non-qualitative demand by simple tantalization. The saw millers are classified by their scale and then analyzed. According to the result of the questionnaires, the saw millers regarded the degrees of bending as the most important factor for buying, the condition of annual ring as the second and the color as the third. From the viewpoint of non-qualitative demand, the saw millers most of all evaluated the provenance information and the certificate about biological drying wood.