Warm winter has seen less timber stockpiled than usual in Estonia
Due to the delayed winter, significantly less timber has been harvested than planned in the forestry sector. This, in turn, affects the incomes of forestry workers. However, timber prices are on the rise and sawn timber prices are also expected to increase by the second quarter.
If last season winter began for the forestry sector in November, this season it only started now, in February. For Valga Puu, one of Estonia's largest forestry companies, this means that significantly fewer operations have been carried out than planned.
"In January this year, we only harvested 13,000 cubic meters. The plan was 30,500 cubic meters. In that sense, it's very bad. Machine operators are paid on a piecework basis, so when two-thirds of the workload disappears, there's an immediate problem — they simply don't get paid," said Jüri Tambets, resource manager at Valga Puu.
The forestry sector accounts for 13 percent of jobs in southeastern Estonia and as much as 15 percent in Viljandi County, making it a key economic sector in these regions that directly affects many people. The small company Loo Mets, which has three employees, acknowledges that as long as risks are diversified and seasons like this don't occur back-to-back, they won't have to shut down operations.
"If we take last year's volume and the cold weather, we could work smoothly in the cold and harvested 2,000 cubic meters per unit. This year, I think that number will be around 1,300," said Robi-Alvis Lõhmus, owner of Loo Mets.
Now that the weather has been colder for about a week, all available resources are in use seven days a week, and if necessary, workdays extend to 14 hours, Lõhmus added.
Sawmills, which traditionally use winter to stockpile raw materials, have also been affected.
"There hasn't been as much material as needed, so competition for every cubic meter of logs has become fierce and that competition is primarily driven by price. The sawn timber market doesn't currently support this price surge, but it's expected that timber prices will rise in the second quarter," said Tambets.
"We're not purely a sawmill; we also have post-processing capabilities, which means we can afford to pay a bit more for raw materials than standalone sawmills. Not everyone in the sector is faring equally well. However, raw material prices stabilized in the second half of last year and at least pine log prices have already started trending slightly upward," said Martti Kork, CEO of Barrus.
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
