Enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency of Ukraine this year plan to sell over 500,000 New Year trees at an average price of UAH 60-70 per linear meter, Deputy Director of state-owned enterprise (SOE) Forestry Innovation and Analytical Center of the State Forest Resources Agency Yuriy Sotnyk has said. “This year, the forestry enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency are planning to sell more than 500,000 New Year trees. These trees are grown on plantations or harvested in the process of logging during a forest rehabilitation campaign,” he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. According to him, the average selling price for the enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency, depending on the region, breed and age of the New Year tree, ranges from UAH 60 to UAH 70 per linear meter (at the level of last year). For spruces grown in pots, the price starts from UAH 100.
Sotnyk said that in addition to enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency, there will also be municipal enterprises, enterprises of collective and private forms of ownership, farms, which will have about 200,000-300,000 trees, in addition to enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency.
He said that the enterprises of the State Forest Resources Agency are harvesting trees from special forest plantations with a total area of about 5,000 hectares, where more than 14 million New Year trees are grown.
“This year, as last year, raid brigades will be created. They, in addition to employees of the forest guard service, also include officers of the National Police, environmental inspectorates and media representatives,” the deputy director of the Forestry Innovation and Analytical Center said.
Sotnyk said that in 2018, during the New Year holidays, about 700 violations were revealed, administrative reports against the illegal harvesting of more than 1,000 trees were recorded. Violators paid fines in the amount of more than UAH 250,000.
“New Year trees are recorded in the electronic accounting system. There is a special labeling: plastic tags, ribbons, etc. It allows getting information about the place of its harvesting, growing. For this, Yalynka.info free application has been developed, which can be downloaded to a smartphone,” the representative of the developer of the electronic wood accounting system – Austria’s Latschbacher GmbH – Volodymyr Molochko said.
In addition, the legality of the harvested New Year tree can be checked directly on the website of the State Forest Resources Agency: for this one needs to check the number indicated on the tree label in the system.
As reported, in 2018, the State Forest Resources Agency’s enterprises sold 472,800 New Year trees for the amount of UAH 32.8 million. The average price of a New Year tree was UAH 69.
