The Russian forest industry could be devastated by huge increases in log export taxes due at the end of the year, an influential publication has warned.
The Wood Resource Quarterly in Seattle has cast doubt on Russia’s ability to process the extra logs that will be available for the production of domestic wood products as part of government attempts to develop the industry.
“This is going to have huge negative ramifications for thousands of Russian loggers, forest managers and workers involved in the transportation of wood,” it said.
Taxes paid by Finnish and other processors of Russian logs will increase from €15/m³ to €50/m³ on January 1, effectively ending exports and leaving Russia with 35 million m³ of softwood.
“Because of poor infrastructure, lack of investment capital, corruption, burdensome bureaucracy and political uncertainty it is not likely the industry will be able to expand more rapidly in the near future.”
