The parent company of Södra Forest Estonia OÜ, the Swedish cooperative Södra Skogsägarna Ekonomisk Förening, announced that its core objective is to manage its members' forests and process their raw materials to add value to forest properties. As part of its strategic implementation, Södra has decided to withdraw from its forest holdings and related operations in the Baltics.

"Our mission is to serve our members' forests, but not to own forests ourselves. That is why we initiated the sale process and are currently working to find the right buyer. However, we are in no rush," said Peter Karlsson, head of Södra Skog's business unit.

The process involves Södra seeking potential buyers interested in moving forward with the transaction this year.

Södra owns approximately 153,000 hectares of land in Estonia and Latvia, the majority of which is in Latvia. In Estonia, the company manages over 16,000 hectares of land, 90 percent of which is forest land. This made Södra the sixth largest forest owner in 2023.

Priit Luts, head of media relations at the State Forest Management Center (RMK), told ERR that since the ownership change will affect only about 1 percent of the managed forest land in Estonia, the overall market impact will remain limited.

"There's a buyer for every product at the right price," Luts added. "There's no reason for us to speculate on who that buyer might be."

Södra Forest Estonia, previously known as Södra Metsad OÜ, began operations in 2006, focusing on developing forest investments in Estonia on behalf of its Swedish parent company. According to its most recent financial report for 2023, Södra Forest Estonia purchased an additional 204.5 hectares of forest properties in Estonia during the year.

In 2014, Södra opened two wood terminals — one in Pärnu and another in Malla village in Lääne-Viru County. At the end of 2019, the Lääne-Viru terminal was relocated to the Kunda Port area. These terminals have been used for sourcing pulpwood both from Södra's own properties and through purchases from other Estonian forest companies. The pulpwood was then sold to the parent company in Sweden.

In 2023, Södra sourced a total of 76,575 cubic meters of pulpwood for its terminals in Pärnu and Lääne-Viru County and exported more than 166,000 cubic meters of pulpwood to Sweden, generating €11.7 million in revenue.

Södra Metsad OÜ recorded a turnover of €16.566 million in 2023, of which 29 percent came from local sales, over 70 percent from exports to Sweden and 0.2 percent from exports to Latvia. The company's profit exceeded €5 million and it had six employees at the end of 2023.

While last year's financial report has not yet been submitted, data from the Estonian commercial register shows that Södra Forest Estonia had a taxable turnover of €2.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

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