In January-September 2024, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” increased its timber sales to 9.3 cubic meters, which is 6.9% more than in the same period in 2023, the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets said in a telegram channel.
“Once again, we are convinced of the correctness of the decision to refuse processing. This year, we are no longer maintaining unprofitable workshops and are actively selling resources to the market at prices determined by exchange trading,” he said.
According to Bolokhivets, roundwood was the driver of sales growth, with sales increasing by 562 thousand cubic meters to 4.4 million cubic meters. In monetary terms, roundwood brought in an additional UAH 2.1 billion compared to last year.
At the same time, there were other factors that led to a decrease in revenues, he said. Among them is a drop in prices for industrial firewood, which reduced revenues by about UAH 330 million compared to last year. At the same time, the cost of contractors’ services has increased, and, accordingly, the cost of harvesting (instead of shadow barter, there are now transparent relations based on market prices), explained the CEO of the state enterprise.
“Les Ukrayiny managed to keep its net profit at the level of the previous year – UAH 2.6 billion, as well as a profitability level of more than 15%,” stated Bolokhovets.
At the same time, the state-owned enterprise more than doubled its free timber supplies to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to UAH 305 million. Due to the refusal to process wood, Forests of Ukraine received additional resources to help the frontline, increased salaries for lower-level employees, increased investments in fixed assets and the formation of the procurement services market, the head of the state enterprise added.
“Throughout the year, the average price of timber has been slowly but steadily declining. However, I hope that by the end of four quarters we will surpass last year’s economic performance. The transformation process will help the company become stronger and we will have a solid foundation for growth in the coming years,” summarized the CEO of Forests of Ukraine.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. As part of it, the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions has already been introduced. Since 2021, an interactive map of wood processing facilities has been operating in a test mode in a number of regions.
The industry has implemented the Forest in a Smartphone project, which contains a list of logging tickets for timber harvesting and allows you to check the legality of logging on the agency’s online map.
On June 1, 2023, Ukraine launched a pilot of electronic issuance of logging tickets and certificates of origin of timber. In addition, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has launched a pilot project to procure timber harvesting services through the electronic platform Prozorro.
