Summary
• French forests cover more than 15 million ha.
• France’s oak resource is one of the world’s biggest.
• The sawmill sector is still dominated by small to medium-sized companies.
• Oak is the dominant French species exported to the UK.

France’s forests rather put the UK’s in the shade. In fact, they could put them in the shade five times over. UK tree cover, according to the latest Forestry Commission figures, accounts for 11.5% of the country, or 2.8 million ha. France’s extends to over 28% of its much bigger surface, a total area, according to the timber industry body Federation Nationale du Bois (French Timber), of 15.6 million ha. That puts it third in the EU forest league behind Sweden and Finland. What is more, French forestry is growing at between 40,000-50,000ha a year.

The country is dominated by hardwoods, which account for 61% of forest area, and oak is by far the leading species. In fact France has one of the greatest areas of oak woodland of any country, estimated by French Timber (FT) at 5.5 million ha. Beech is the second most prolific hardwood at 2.4 million ha, followed by poplar, maple, sycamore, ash, chestnut, wild cherry and walnut.

The surge in French softwood forestry came in the 19th century, when great tracts along the Atlantic coast were planted, partly to help minimise erosion of the sand dunes. Today the principal species, in terms of forest area, are spruce, fir, maritime and Scots pine; but the variety spreading fastest is Douglas fir.

“Douglas fir was introduced over 150 years ago, but recently it has really gained popularity,” said FT director-general Yves Costrel de Corainville. “It is well adapted to the French climate, grows rapidly and produces long lengths of clean construction timber. It is being used in many areas to replant woodland previously occupied by other species, including oak and other hardwoods. The state is committed to maintaining the authenticity of its forests, and tends to replace like for like, but private owners aren’t prepared to wait over 100 years for oak to mature.”

Forest ownership

France’s vast forest area adds up to an enormous wood resource, a total of 2.9 billion m³ of standing timber which is increasing by 88 million m³ a year. But one factor that makes this not quite the abundance of riches for French sawmills it might at first seem is the forest ownership structure, with a large part of the total broken up into millions of individual and communal smallholdings.

“Our ownership pattern dates back to the revolution when the forest was taken from the monarchy and aristocracy,” said Mr Costrel de Corainville. “Around 40% is held by the state and administered by the Office National des Forets, but the rest is divided between four million private owners, and only 200,000 own more than 20ha. And the number of owners is still rising, particularly with farmers planting land they’ve taken out of food production.”

The result of this fragmented structure is that it can be a struggle for sawmills to “mobilise” the timber in line with the growth of forest area. Log sales from state forests – about €240m a year – are a known quantity, but getting timber from private owners can prove complicated logistically and in terms of persuading them to sell.

“Some smaller owners don’t want to sell their timber,” said Mr Costrel. “Others hold it back to secure a better price; when the market’s down they wait for it to rise, when prices are rising, they wait for them to rise more.”

Having said that, the French timber harvest is gradually increasing, hitting around 47 million m³ last year. Of this, around 20 million m³ is destined for the sawmilling sector, the remainder divided among the paper and pulp, charcoal and wood fuel sectors.

To some extent the structure of the sawmill sector reflects that of forestry, dominated by medium-sized businesses established to exploit locally available raw material. There has been concentration in the sector, with FT’s membership, which includes veneer, pallet producers and wood fuel makers as well as mills, falling from 2,200 20 years ago to 1,750 today (around 1,155 of which are sawmills). But middle-ranking producers remain the industry mainstay. “Our mill members, principally medium-sized companies, still account for 80% of French sawn timber output,” said Mr Costrel de Corainville.

Softwood production

French sawn softwood production, according to FT, is around 7.5 million m³ a year. The lead species in terms of volume is SPF, at 3.9 million m³, with its key markets including timber frame construction, joinery and mouldings and France’s growing engineered wood sector. Maritime pine, principally destined for joinery, is the next biggest species at 2.14 million m3, but fastest growing is Douglas fir at 810,000m³ and increasing at 15% a year. France is also a major softwood importer, buying about 3.5 million m³ a year, mainly from Nordic producers.

According to Mr Costrel de Corainville, the French softwood sector is buoyant, driven by booming demand from construction, which accounts for 60% of wood consumption.

“Housing starts in 2007 will be down on the 2006 total of 420,000 units, but they are still expected to be between 380,000-400,000,” he said. “Helping increase demand, the government is incentivising builders to use wood generally as part of its environmental programme and we are also seeing 10% annual growth in timber frame.”

Demand from French pallet producers has also been strong, with their annual production running at between 60-70 million units. Wood fuel consumption, boosted by government policy to increase co-generation energy production to 300MW a year, is also underpinning business, although some fear that in the longer term this market may become a rival for sawmills’ raw material.

France’s sawn hardwood production is around 2.5 million m³ a year and predictably dominated by oak, with annual output of 950,000m³. Beech follows at 620,000m³, then poplar at 500,000m³ a year.

Furniture manufacturing

The French hardwood sector has been hit by the migration of furniture manufacture to lower labour cost countries but, said Mr Costrel de Corainville, they are adapting, investing in further processing to diversify. “Mills have focused on added value and developed new products. Flooring, in particular, has grown strongly.”

The oak sector promotional organisation, APECF, he added, has itself been helping the diversification process with its “J’ai choisis le chene” [I chose oak] campaign.

“This is designed to get away from perceptions of oak as the timber your grandmother’s wardrobe was made of,” said FT managing director Jean-Françcois Guilbert. “It creates a modern image, showing oak’s use in flooring, stairs and contemporary architecture.”

Given buoyant domestic demand and the scale of international competition, it is no surprise that French softwood exports are relatively small. Sales to the UK last year were only 15,000-20,000m³ (and 5,616m³ in the first quarter of 2007). But the combination of the scale of its raw material supply and, more recently, the decline in domestic furniture output, has made hardwood mills more export oriented. Some mills are selling up to 70% of output abroad, and around 30% of all oak production is exported. Oak exports last year were 213,631m² in sawn lumber and 332,897m³ in logs, with the figures for beech 146,949m³ and 438,025m³ respectively.

The UK is already among the biggest importers of French oak, with FT reporting the log total last year at 34,507m³ and lumber at 40,485m³, and producers see prospects for further growth. In particular they identify potential in timber flooring, oak frame construction and in the renovation and refurbishment sector.

More broadly, FT believes it would be worthwhile for more UK importers and end users to explore the possibilities of buying French and to look at a wider spread of species than has historically been traded across the Channel. Putting the seal on French timber’s potential here, said Mr Costrel de Corainville, are its environmental credentials. France introduced a national forest management system in 1827 and today 4.35 million ha is PEFC certified, with a further 15,500ha accredited to the FSC programme.

“In France, demand for environmental certification from consumers and even government is relatively under-developed, probably partly because of the assumption that French timber is sustainable by definition,” said Mr Guilbert. “But UK buyers increasingly want this added assurance and French timber suppliers can provide it.”