Forestry in Russia: Difference between revisions

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The Russian forestry industry is a set of Russian industries related to wood harvesting and processing. As one of the oldest sectors in the country's economy, Russia's timber industry continues to bring in about $20 billion per year. Russia has more than a fifth of the world's forests, making it the largest forest country in the world. According to data for 2015, the total forest area has exceeded 885 million hectares, representing 45% of the total area of the country. The stock of wood in the area was 82 billion cubic meters. However in 2023 academics complained that not enough information had been published.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Filipchuk |first=Andrey N. |last2=Malysheva |first2=Nataliya V. |last3=Zolina |first3=Tatiana A. |last4=Seleznev |first4=Alexander A. |date=2023-10-01 |title=Carbon stock in living biomass of Russian forests: new quantification based on data from the first cycle of the State Forest Inventory |url=https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.2478/forj-2023-0021 |journal=Central European Forestry Journal |language=en |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=248–261 |doi=10.2478/forj-2023-0021 |issn=2454-0358|doi-access=free }}</ref>

A significant proportion of revenue from the industry is generated by the export of raw materials from sawing logs. For a long time Russia was the main supplier of raw wood material in Europe. However, according to a 2012 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Government of the Russian Federation, <ref>[http://www.fao.org/3/i1757e/i1757e.pdf FAO. 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Main Report. FAO Forestry Working Paper 163, Rome, Italy]</ref><ref name=":0">[http://www.fao.org/3/i1757r/i1757r.pdf FAO. 2010. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Main Report. FAO Forestry Working Paper 163, Rome, Italy] (in Russian)</ref> the potential of Russian forests is underutilized and Russia's share of the global trade in forest products is less than 4%. <ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/157942/icode/ |title=Innovations and investments urged to modernize Russian forest sector www.fao.org] |access-date=2012-11-28 |archive-date=2016-01-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101114510/http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/157942/icode/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.fao.org/forestry/outlook/79738/en/ Russian Federation Forest Sector Outlook Study to 2030 www.fao.org/forestry]</ref><ref>[http://www.fao.org/3/i3020e/i3020e00.pdf FAO. 2012. Russian Federation Forest Sector Outlook Study to 2030. Rome, Italy]</ref><ref name=":1">[http://www.fao.org/3/i3020r/i3020r00.pdf FAO. 2012. Russian Federation Forest Sector Outlook Study to 2030. Rome, Italy] (in Russian)</ref>

Russia's timber industry sectors, as part of the Russia's total industrial production, are seventh place in terms of production and fifth place in terms of national exports. <ref name=":0" /> The main product of the Russia's forest industry is timber, whose share among the total volume of exported timber is approximately 75 - 80%. The logging industry is considered to be the basic direction of the whole forest complex. By the end of the 1980s, the USSR ranked second in the world in the export of wood, second only to the United States. As a result of numerous economic changes throughout the past decade, Russia has moved between 6th and 7th place worldwide in this index.

The net profit of the Russian forest industry companies in 2008 fell sharply, evidenced by an annual ranking of the 50 largest companies data published by the magazine "Forest Industry". Total revenue companies included in the Lesnaya Industriya’sIndustriya's Top 50 "Forest Industry" amounted to 216.34 billion rubles ($2.93 billion USD). The 10 largest companies accounted for more than 70% of total revenue, with the total net profit of the top 50 companies amounting to 6.26 billion rubles ($84.8 million USD). The share of companies that engaged exclusively in the processing of wood without pulp and paper production accounted for slightly more than 27% of total revenue, while the total net profit from these industries was around 26.8%.

Zelenodolskiy plywood plant had the highest profitability ratio (17%) in 2008. The fastest-growing forest industry company in Russia was United Panel Group, whose revenue was 3.04 billion roubles ($41.3 million USD), up 89.5%. Ilim Group gained the largest net benefit in 2008 with a revenue of 1.67 billion roubles ($22.7 million USD) and was also listed in the Top 50 forest industry companies as having the largest revenue overall, at 37.92 billion roubles ($515 million USD). The Top 50 Russian Forest Industry rating is prepared and published by Lesnaya Industriya magazine on the base of companies’ accounting reporting and data provided by the companies. <ref name=":2">Bogatyrev, Alexei; Fateeva, Veronika; Fedotkina, Yana (October 6, 2009), [https://www.lesprom.com/en/news/Lesnaya_Industriya_Profitability_ratio_of_Russian_forest_industry_companies_decreased_harshly_40679/ "Profitability ratio of Russian forest industry companies decreased harshly"], ''Lesnaya Industriya''</ref>

In Russia, the development of the biofuel sector is regulated by the state program. The goal of the program prioritizes "energy saving and energy efficiency for the period up to 2020," with goals for saving energy that stretch as far as 2030 in scope. However, as noted in the journal article "Forest Industry", <ref name=":1" /> these goals are not sufficiently clear in the draft. According to these documents, by 2020, 4.5% of electricity in Russia must be made with the use of alternative sources, those being not consisting of lumber related products. Comparatively, in Norway, the figure for alternatively-sourced electricity is 67.5%, and in Sweden and Latvia the figures are 50% and 40% respectively.

Biofuel consumption grows in Central Europe as Germany, Netherlands, and United Kingdom increase the import of pellets. Brazil, Canada and the United States also have large reserves of biofuel feedstocks, making them direct competitors with Russia in the market of exporting wood pellets to Europe.

* The absence of a competent methodology for selecting investment projects in the timber industry. <ref name=":2" />

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