The Republic of Congo's timber industry, the second money maker after oil in the West African country, has been hit by months of global financial crisis, according to the government.

Over the past eight months, the price of timber at the international market has gone down amid the development of financial crisis, leading to a slump in demand, Henri Djombo, the forestry and environment minister, said on Tuesday at a meeting of wood trade.

"The consumption has declined among the users of our timber in the biggest countries," Djombo told the meeting which was held to find a way-out as nearly all the companies in the trade found an increase in stocks.

An icon industry in Congo, timber exported to other countries brought in US$397 million in 2006, a multi-fold increase from US$72 million posted two decades ago. The country now boasts about 30 producers with an estimated output of 1.5 million cubic meters every year. Congo's major importers include Europe, the United States and Asia, which altogether have two-thirds of the country's timber export.

In the face of the financial crisis, the government and companies have put on halt timber production and licensing business operations, exacerbating unemployment which has reached 30 percent.

One of the measures proposed by companies to ease the situation is the soft landing of timber production.

"It is better to take progressive measures to diminish activities, to reduce volume, so as to adapt to production and market," participants of the meeting said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2008)