Market situation, governmental regulations and consumer preferences for three wood-based products.

To compete the Norwegian forest industry needs to improve its products development and it must increase the orientation towards the consumers. Efforts in this direction require more knowledge about opportunities and limitations given by the industry, the market and by institutional factors (standards, regulations and public policies). This project addresses this for three selected wood-based products with different characteristics: pressure-treated wood, bioenergy and solid wood. The project includes both a study of the industry (environment, structure, market, resources, products) and of consumer preferences (preferred attributes for different customer groups). The role of product standards and of industry policies is given particular emphasis. We will u se secondary sources, surveys, interviews and focus group discussions together with qualitative and quantitative methods. The results will provide a deeper insight about the factors influencing the growth and dynamics of the industry. They will also contain information about preferences and consumer segments. In the synthesis these results will be used for identification of potentials, limitations and required strategy changes for a customer oriented innovation and market-development of bioenergy, solid wood, and pressure treated wood. Policy recommendations regarding standardization and industry policy will be presented.