In January–September 2025, the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” increased its revenue from product sales by 25.4% compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 21.7 billion, according to the press service of the state-owned enterprise.
According to the report, half of the funds received by Forests of Ukraine were directed to budgets at all levels. The enterprise also increased its tax payments in the current year by almost 70% to UAH 10.7 billion.
“Thanks to the growth in sales revenue, significant savings on purchases, and optimization of expenses, profitability increased from 14.8% to 28.6% compared to last year,” Lisy Ukrainy specified.
In September, the state-owned enterprise harvested the largest volume of timber in the last five months. Harvesting volumes reached 1.07-1.1 million cubic meters per month.
The fulfillment of auction contracts for the supply of timber currently stands at over 90%, and taking into account buyer refusals, 97%. A significant proportion of refusals occur in the frontline, eastern, and northern regions, where the risks of harvesting or delivering products have increased. Forward six-month contracts are almost 100% fulfilled.
The balance of products in the company’s warehouses at the end of the quarter is the lowest since the beginning of the year – 550 thousand cubic meters.
Lesy Ukrainy drew attention to the seasonal increase in demand for firewood for the population, which corresponds to last year’s level. In September, the company harvested over 300,000 cubic meters of firewood. By the end of 2025, it plans to harvest over 900,000 cubic meters more to build up a strategic reserve for the winter period.
“Exchange prices for firewood have risen significantly since last year. For the population and the social sphere, the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” maintains social prices at a stable level. The average cost of firewood in Ukraine, as in the previous year, is approximately 1-1.1 thousand hryvnia per cubic meter,” the state-owned enterprise summarized.
According to the results of the auction, the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” contracted 99% of the volume of round timber and firewood for the fourth quarter of this year, the press service of the SE reported on Telegram.
“Demand for wood continues to grow. (…) The average price of roundwood rose to UAH 6,800/cubic meter (in the third quarter — UAH 5,700/cubic meter, in the second — UAH 5,400/cubic meter). The average price of firewood for industrial use is UAH 2,300 per cubic meter (in the third quarter — UAH 1,800 per cubic meter, in the second — UAH 1,500 per cubic meter),” the report says.
As noted, the starting prices of the auctions were lower than the sales prices in the third quarter. The state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” tried to restrain price dynamics, but in conditions of free competition, the final prices are determined exclusively by demand.
To increase supply, Lisy Ukrainy put all available resources up for auction (except for firewood for the population, the social sector, and resources for the Armed Forces of Ukraine). A small percentage of products that buyers rejected were immediately put up for additional auction. Products for which there was no demand or which had a high price were put up for Dutch auction to determine the market price.
According to the state-owned enterprise, 1.5 million cubic meters of wood in the second half of the year was supplied to customers under forward contracts at a fixed price, meaning that processors were able to avoid the risk of rising product costs in advance.
In addition, during July-September, timber harvesting consistently exceeded 1 million cubic meters.
“As for increasing harvesting, this issue requires comprehensive solutions, most of which are currently beyond the competence of foresters,” said Forests of Ukraine, adding that the volume of main use logging over the past three years has remained virtually unchanged, within the range of 5.6-5.7 million cubic meters.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) found LLC “Marxoll” (formerly LLC “Dryada Zakhid”) and LLC “Ligna Ukraine” guilty of collusion during their participation in two tenders for the purchase of plastic cassettes (with an estimated value of UAH 34,470,680.00) and the purchase of tags for marking timber (with an estimated value of UAH 26,534,070.00) held by the state-owned enterprise Lesa Ukrainy in 2023 and 2024, the press service of the agency reported.
The committee established circumstances which, taken together, indicate that the companies engaged in anti-competitive concerted actions with the aim of eliminating competition between them during their participation in the aforementioned tenders. The facts revealed showed joint and coordinated behavior by the companies in preparing for and participating in the tenders, as well as communication between them and the exchange of information, the statement said.
The AMCU recognized the actions of Markosoll LLC and Ligna Ukraine LLC as a violation of competition law under paragraph 4 of part 2 of Article 6, and Article 50(1) of the Law “On Protection of Economic Competition,” which led to a distortion of the tender results, and fined them a total of UAH 5,495,260.
The agency recalled that, according to the Law “On Public Procurement,” the basis for refusing to participate in a procurement procedure is the fact that a business entity (participant) has been held liable within the last three years for committing anti-competitive concerted actions related to the distortion of tender results.
The state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has planned centralized purchases of fuel, electricity, specialized equipment for forest protection, and infrastructure construction services worth over UAH 3.1 billion for 2025, the press service of the state-owned enterprise reported.
Lisy Ukrainy specified that in 2025, UAH 207 million will be allocated for the purchase of special vehicles for forest protection and IT equipment and software, UAH 590 million for special equipment and components, UAH 872 million for the construction and development of infrastructure, UAH 1.15 billion for fuel and energy resources, and other expenses – UAH 174 million.
The state-owned enterprise said that this year it had improved its procurement system and introduced performance analysis and internal rating.
In addition, in March, the team responsible for procurement at State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” was renewed. Its head, Mykhailo Stayetsky, previously worked at Ukrposhta. The new team’s goal is to increase the efficiency and transparency of procurement, optimize the company’s expenses, and ensure the implementation of the investment program and key initiatives.
“Category managers study and coordinate the internal needs of the enterprise and the external market conditions in which they can be met. To this end, they conduct pre-tender market consultations with manufacturers, importers, official dealers, and major players in the goods and services markets. They formulate procurement conditions that allow a wider range of participants to be invited to tender for the timely and high-quality satisfaction of the company’s needs at an optimal price and without additional risks,” explained the State Enterprise ”Forests of Ukraine.”
The state-owned enterprise drew attention to its updated procurement page. It will feature announcements of open meetings and consultations with potential participants in the most complex and unusual procurements, where their external expertise of suppliers will determine the final terms of the tender.
A separate role has been introduced in the electronic procurement system for internal monitoring of procurement by regional offices, providing them with practical and methodological assistance to improve efficiency.
This will allow for faster identification of weaknesses, implementation of uniform approaches to the preparation of tender documentation, and application of best practices in preventing violations of public procurement legislation,” according to Lisy Ukrainy.
At the same time, the state-owned enterprise will establish procedures and criteria for internal ranking of procurement officers in regional offices. This will motivate the strongest members of the team and support and develop those who are striving to catch up with the leaders.
“This practice has proven itself at Ukrposhta, resulting in the centralization of the procurement team, which has consistently shown excellent results in procurement year after year (2nd place in the 2024 customer index),” Staietsky concluded.
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.
In January-June 2024, the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” earned UAH 11.14 billion, which is significantly more than in the same period in 2023, said the company’s CEO Yuriy Bolokhovets.
“The absence of in-house processing is fully compensated by a 15% increase in sales of unprocessed wood,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Bolokhovets also noted that the state-owned enterprise has also lost significant subsidized assets, which the State Property Fund sells through Prozorro. Keeping non-core assets for years only drained the company’s funds, he explained.
“As a result, we expect a significant increase in the company’s profits. It’s too early to talk about specific figures, but it’s hundreds of millions of hryvnias more than last year,” the CEO emphasized.
Such decisions allowed the company to increase salaries of lower-level employees – forest masters and assistant foresters – and to increase social guarantees for demobilized employees, of which the company has more than 500.
In addition, the state-owned enterprise was able to raise prices for contractors and increase spending on the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“The reform has changed everything. The State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” has moved to a model of market wages and transparent conditions for organizing production,” summarized its CEO.
According to the Opendabot service, the total profit of the State Enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” in 2023 amounted to UAH 2.8 billion.
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.
