Belarus' timber export doubles since 2006

Belarus' timber export has doubled since 2006, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Nazarov said during a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic in Minsk on 28 October, BelTA has learned.

"Modernization of the woodworking and pulp and paper enterprises affiliated with the Bellesbumprom concern had a positive impact on the efficiency of the forestry industry. Industrial wood processing increased by more than 1.5 times since 2006 and reached 18.5 million cubic meters in 2020. Timber export doubled to total $2.4 billion. The volume of waste paper processing increased too,” Yuri Nazarov said.

According to him, the effective use of the forest and increasing value added remains the priority for the forestry industry. The pulp and paper industry completed three large-scale projects to produce sulfate cellulose, coated types of cardboard and base paper for decorative facing materials in 2020-2021. “The enterprises should keep moving on. If it were not for the sanctions, we would have already launched the project to build a new paper-making mill [at Svetlogorsk Pulp and Board Mill]. In fact, when this mill is put into operation, we will meet the domestic demand in packaging paper," the deputy prime minister said.

He also drew special attention to the need to use the entire range of wood resources. Currently, certain types of wood (aspen, alder) are not involved or insufficiently involved in processing. The underutilized estimated cutting area is about 3 million cubic meters of soft-leaved wood. Negotiations are scheduled with a Norwegian investor in early November to set up a production of bleached chemi-thermomechanical pulp at Mogilevkhimvolokno. "The investor put forward a condition, namely the guaranteed provision of raw materials until the project pays back. We are likely to accept it," Yuri Nazarov added.