The forest industry exports in Latvia have slightly grown during the Q1 of this year. Thus, the sales have gone up by 6.9% by the end of March, reaching EUR 537.527 million, compared to the same period of 2015 (EUR 502.781 million).
As the Latvian Agriculture Ministry reported, the timber and timber products made up for 86.3% of the total exports or EUR 463.813 million, compared to the 85.3% during the Q1 of 2015. This represents a year-on-year growth of 8.2%, according to the Baltic Course.
During the Q1/2016, the sawn timber exports reached EUR 129.788 million, which is a 9.5% year-on-year decline. Also, this represents a 24.1% of the total forestry industry exports.
Moreover, the firewood exports increased to EUR 81.014 million (7.9% growth), accounting for 15.1% of the total exports. The roundwood exports declined to EUR 34.012 million (-27.9%) and made up for 6.3% of Latvia’s total forestry industry exports.
Also, the wooden furniture exports met a 3.8% year-on-year decline, reaching EUR 32.805 million. This represented a 6.1% of the total exports, compared to the 6.8% in the Q1/2015. The exports of paper, cardboard and their products rose 7.1% to EUR 29.401 million, making up 5.5% of total exports in the first three months of 2016 (5.5% in Q1, 2015), as the Baltic Course reported.
During the Q1/2016, most of Latvia’s forest products went to the UK (17.9%), Sweden (11.8%) and Germany (9.9%). Thus, the exports to the UK rose by 12.4%, compared to the same period of 2015, and reached EUR 96.056 million. The same happened with the forest industry exports to Sweden, which grew by 40.3%, reaching EUR 63.203 million. Also, the exports to Germany rose 7.2%, reaching EUR 53.32 million.
