The head of the Republic of Komi Sergey Gaplikov: “Komi Timber producers supported a complete ban on the export of plywood logs”

Komi timber companies have proposed to introduce a complete ban on the export of plywood logs from Russia – raw materials for the production of plywood, which is sorely lacking in domestic producers. This measure will stabilize the situation of Russian plywood mills and give an opportunity for their development, said in an interview with TASS during the Russian investment forum in Sochi, the head of the Republic of Komi Sergey Gaplikov.

From January 01 to June 30, 2019 quotas for the export of birch plywood ridge were introduced.

“The introduction of temporary restrictions will allow stabilizing the situation on the raw material market for a while, to suspend the growth of prices for plywood logs, to ensure capacity utilization and thereby to stabilize the financial and economic situation of Russian plywood mills. However, the time limit is a half-measure, it would be correct to introduce a complete ban on the export of plywood in order to increase the processing of birch plywood in Russia, reduce the export of unprocessed logs. Strategically, in this case, the volume of production of goods with a higher added value in the country will increase, tax revenues to the budgets of different levels will increase,” –  Gaplikov said.

The timber industry is one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the Komi economy, which shows the highest rates of increase in production. According to the regional government, investments in the timber industry in January-September 2018 amounted to 5,167 billion rubles. In 2019, it is expected to invest more than 6 billion rubles of investment. At the same time, the total volume of investments of large enterprises in the economy of the region amounted to more than 76.697 billion rubles for the nine months of last year, the lion’s share is occupied by investments of oil and gas companies. The share of investments in the timber industry was 7.3%.

The estimated cutting area in the Komi Republic is about 34 million cubic meters per year, harvested annually about 9 million cubic meters. Seven priority forest development projects are being implemented.