Enterprises of the State Agency for Forest Resources of Ukraine (Goslesagency) will soon purchase a batch of powerful industrial wood splitters, with the help of which they will massively harvest firewood, which, under the conditions of Russian aggression, has become one of the components of the country’s energy security and a commercially attractive product.
In addition, it is planned to borrow the European model for harvesting and drying firewood. This will allow to bring the moisture content of products to the optimum and guarantee maximum heat transfer during their combustion, said the head of the agency, Yuri Bolokhovets.
“The European consumer buys mostly ready-to-use firewood. We in Ukraine today sell most of the firewood in the forest” from under the saw. demand is uneven, because in the spring, when it is best to create stocks for next winter, demand, on the contrary, drops to almost zero,” the head of the State Forest Agency said on Facebook on Friday.
According to him, it is possible to solve the issue of cyclical harvesting of firewood by investing in equipment for processing and drying firewood. This will allow enterprises of the State Forest Agency to enter the market with already chopped firewood of the appropriate moisture content. In addition, forestries need to attract funding in order to have working capital for uniform harvesting and processing of firewood throughout the year, not focusing only on the factor of seasonal demand. At the same time, firewood should be sold mainly from warehouses, where the wood acquires the required moisture during storage.
Bolohovets stressed that the existing problem of distributing wood fuel between regions can be solved by switching to the preparation of firewood according to European standards: it is economically justified to transport only completely ready-to-use firewood to other regions of Ukraine.
“We have already begun to move in this direction. The enterprises of the State Forest Agency will soon purchase a batch of powerful industrial wood splitters. At the same time, I have high hopes for our new state enterprise Forests of Ukraine. investments and introduce uniform corporate standards,” the head of the department summed up.
As reported, Ukraine is starting a reform of the state forestry industry, in which all 158 forestry enterprises of the country are united into a single specialized state enterprise Forests of Ukraine. The existing 24 regional administrations will be enlarged to nine regional administrations of forestry and hunting.
The creation of such an enterprise for the management of forestry enterprises is provided for by the State Strategy for Forest Management of Ukraine until 2035. Goslesagenstvo emphasizes: a single company with centralized management is more manageable both during martial law and during the post-war recovery of the country’s economy.
