In addition to the familiar challenge of a highly volatile product market, the plywood co-operatives of the Pacific Northwest face a rapidly shrinking supply of timber. Their survival depends on their ability to concentrate on high-quality, high value-added segments of the market and on renewed investment. Investment has been difficult to sustain while owner-members' real incomes have been in decline. Industry and resource supply conditions and environmental regulation provide an increasingly difficult environment for this cluster of co-ops.
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