Russian Forest Federal Agancy: the ban on exporting unprocessed logs may affect the activity of 4,000 organizations

As of January 1, 2022, unprocessed and roughly processed softwood and precious hardwood logs may no longer be exported from the Russian territory. This ban will affect the activity of around 4,000 organizations that were involved in timber export in 2020, according to LesEGAIS data, as reported by the press service of the Russian Forest Federal Agancy.

According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in 2020, the export volume of unprocessed logs was 15.5 million m³ for Russia in general, or 7.2% of the total volume of harvested wood.

Regions with the greatest roundwood export volumes in 2020 are: Khabarovsk Region (2.7 million m³), Vologda Region (2.2 million m³), Irkutsk Region (1.9 million m³), Primorsky Region (1.6 million m³), Leningrad Region (1.0 million m³), Krasnoyarsk Region (0.8 million m³) and Karelia (0.7 million m³). These account for 70% of the country’s total export of unprocessed timber.

The Far East with 42% accounts for the greatest share of unprocessed logs in monetary terms, compared to the total volume of exported timber and timber products. The average value of this indicator across Russia is 12%, to put this in perspective. That is why a series of measures targeted specifically at the Far Eastern Federal District is being developed in order to mitigate the potential risks of banning the export of unprocessed logs and increase the processing capacity. For instance, the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Russian Ministry for the Development of the Far East are developing roadmaps on stimulating value-added wood processing in the Far Eastern territory.

The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade have also involved a number of federal executive authorities and have collectively developed a draft action plan on implementing the Forest Sector Development Strategy until 2030 that includes a series of measures targeted at developing the Far East timber industry.