Asia Pacific Food Industry

Data compiled by the Italian manufacturers' association indicate an overall drop of 14.5 per cent in the first half of the year, with more or less pronounced declines for almost all product types. The anomalous weather trend, together with inflation and rising price lists, is holding back a market that had recorded substantial growth in the 2020-2021 two-year period, the association states.

According to Global Wood Trade Network, the Government of Ontario, Canada is investing $1.8 million to help Niagara Pallet expand its production facility and install automated pallet-making equipment. This investment will triple pallet production, increase the company’s sales by 46 per cent and create 30 new jobs.

As of now, it has been a year since Europe completely banned the import of Russian timber, plywood and other products. During this year, the output and sales of wood and wood products in Russia have declined, and the output of plywood has become the lowest point in 10 years, reported from Global Wood Trade Network. 

According to a recent report by the Russian agency Rossiyskaya Gazeta, as of June, Russia had harvested 77.8 million cubic meters of commercial timber. Although production is increasing every month, it is actually still lower than last year's level. Compared with last year's 89 million cubic meters, this figure still has a drop of about 12 percent, the agency said.

Russia's timber and wood products production is recovering well. And wood pellets are one of the main products exported by Russia, and the current production growth has exceeded 6 percent, mainly from the Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk regions.

As the production of plywood and particleboard is recovering, Roslesinfga director Pavel Chashchin pointed out that it is expected that the demand in the timber market will recover, and the price of plywood and sawn timber will increase by then.

Timur Irtuganoven, Director-General of the Association of Russian Furniture and Wood Processing Enterprises, said that since December last year, the demand for wood furniture in the international market has decreased significantly, but the situation has changed now. He said that with the market improving, the production of some furniture products has increased in the first few months of this year.

Looking at export trends, Russia's supply of timber and timber products to China is growing as expected against the backdrop of European sanctions. From January to May this year, Russia exported 780,000 cubic meters of qualified logs to my country, a year-on-year decrease of 35.18 percent; the value reached 600 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 33 percent. The sawn timber exported to my country reached 5.27 million cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percent; the value reached 7.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4 percent.

At the same time, sawn timber prices are falling on the international market, while in Europe and central Russia prices are rising steadily.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, it shows that wood production exports have fallen by more than 20 percent in the first five months of the year, and import by over 30 percent, reported by lsm.lv.