Finland may become wood supplier for Karelia

Private Finnish forest owners are ready to supply wood to the Russian market, as head of the forest division of the Central Union of agricultural producers and forest owners in Finland Juha Hakkarainen said in an interview to Forest portal of Karelia.

According to him, such a possibility has been already discussed in the Association of private forest owners.

“In Finland, there is now very poor demand for wood. We can increase our annual harvest by 15-20 million cubic metres, but there is not enough demand. However, if demand on the Russian side appears, we can direct our wood flows there”, Hakkarainen said.

He added that Russia’s accession to the WTO opens up enormous opportunities for the supply of the Finnish forest products to the Russian market. This may also increase demand from wood processing enterprises in Finland.

According to the Forest portal of Karelia, in Finland there are more than 700 thousand private forest owners which own over 60% of Finnish forests.