In 2007 companies of Forestry Ministry of Belarus expand export by 48% to $132mln

In 2007 companies of the Forestry Ministry of Belarus exported $132 million worth of products, up by 48% on 2006, BelTA learnt from Ivan Silkov, the chief of the sales and marketing department of the ministry. According to him, in 2008 the companies intend to preserve export upward tendencies. In 2007 pulpwood accounted for 66.5% of the export supplies; industrial wood – for 18.5%. Ivan Silkov explained that industrial wood was rather popular in the domestic market. Last year because of objective reasons Belarus cut the production of industrial wood. It happened as the drying of fir-woods stopped and industrial wood is made of pine trees. Moreover, the number of commercial organisations fell in the woodworking sector; industrial wood was made for the domestic needs mostly. Cylindered wood accounted for 1.3% of the total export; technical wood – for 5.3%. the Belarusian forestry companies were also selling seeds of artificial crops, young plants, mushrooms, berries, peeled wood, wooden pallets and containers. The export increased mainly thanks to a favourable environment in the international wood market. For example, prices for pulpwood have almost doubled and totalled $55-66 per one cubic meters, prices for edge-surfaced lumber reached $200 per one cubic meter and for cylindered wood - $89 per one cubic meter (up by 40%). In 2007 Belarus was exporting wood to 22 countries (the CIS states – 11%; the non-CIS states – 89%). Poland is the main consumer of the Belarusian timber (42% of the export). Then goes Latvia (20.2%), Lithuania (11.4%) and Russia (11%). The companies of the branch also exported $3 million worth of chain saws and chain saw spare parts. They had a trade surplus worth of $129 million.