The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” sold 2.39 million cubic meters of timber at auction in the fourth quarter of 2024, shipped 2.24 million cubic meters of timber at the end of the quarter and brought the percentage of contract fulfillment to 94%, said Yuriy Bolokhovets, CEO of the state enterprise, on Facebook.
“The Ukrainian Energy Exchange (UEEX) announced a 90% level of contract fulfillment. In fact, this figure is even higher. After all, if the buyer refuses to buy the contracted products, we put the resource up for auction again. Therefore, the actual percentage of sales by the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” exceeds 94%,” he said.
Bolokhovets added, referring to the exchange’s data, that the figure for municipal forestries is 75%, and for other forest users – 41%.
He recalled that in 2023, the percentage of contract fulfillment by the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” was less than 90%.
According to him, out of 150 thousand cubic meters of the undelivered volume, 80 thousand cubic meters are military supplies. While the military used to choose mostly round timber of small diameters (15-19 cm, 20-24 cm), which is less popular with businesses, to cover dugouts, they have recently been actively ordering large diameter products (30-34 cm, 35-39 cm) for the manufacture of lumber for trench construction. Military orders are given top priority, the CEO explained.
He also emphasized that harvesters work in a shortage of personnel, crews are not booked, workers are mobilized, sometimes en masse, and therefore the contractor cannot always provide the required volume of harvesting in time for objective reasons. In addition, sanitary felling may not pass the approval procedure for one reason or another.
“Our regional branches are tasked with minimizing the negative consequences for customers in such cases. A hotline operates at the central office level: a solution must be found for each problem situation that will satisfy the company’s client,” the CEO summarized.
As reported, Ukraine launched a forestry reform in 2016. It has already introduced the sale of raw wood at electronic auctions. 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 for the 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.
