Latvia imported EUR 82.832 million worth of forestry products in January 2025, which was an increase of 16.3% over the same period in 2024, the country’s Agriculture Ministry has announced.
Timber and timber products made up 55.6% of the imports (as against 50.5% in January 2024). The value was EUR 46.034 million, which was a 28% increase year-on-year.
Round timber imports rose 2.2 times to EUR 11.326 million, while sawn timber imports were down by 7.9% to EUR 7.403 million. Plywood imports increased by 29.% to EUR 4.18 million, and firewood imports accounted for EUR 3.719 million, which was an increase of 5.8%
Paper, cardboard and related products accounted for EUR 30.107 million of forestry product imports in January, which was up 7.7% on the year. The products made up 36.3% of all forest product imports (39.2% in January 2024), while imports of wood furniture rose 1.1% to EUR 6.011 million or 7.3% or all forestry product imports (8.3% a year ago).
The largest share of forestry industry imports to Latvia came from neighbouring Lithuania in January, worth EUR 21.283 million, or 25.7% of total imports. Estonia delivered EUR 11.45 million worth of products (14.38%), while 12.7% or EUR 10.522 million worth of products came from Poland.
Compared to January 2024, forestry product imports from Lithuania rose by 20.7%, by 28.5% from Estonia and by 6.1% from Poland.
During January 2024, Latvia imported a total of EUR 71.25 million worth of forestry products.
Latvia exported EUR 289.403 million worth of forestry products in January 2025, which was 0.4% more than a year before, the Agriculture Ministry reports.
Timber and timber products were exported at a value of EUR 259.502 million in January 2025, or 0.2% more than a year before. This amounted to EUR 89.7% of total forestry exports (89.9% in January 2024).
Sawn timber exports were worth EUR 72.595 million, which was 50.2% more than last January. The value of exported firewood was EUR 49.309 million (-43.2%), for plywood it was EUR 32.803 million (+17.1%), and for round timber exports were down by 4.8% to EUR 25.232 million.
Ministry data also show that the export value of wooden furniture in January of this year rose by 8.1% against the same month last year to EUR 15.881 million, or 5.5% of total exports (5.1% in January 2024). Export of paper, cardboard and related products amounted to EUR 11.097 million, or 7.4% more than the year before and making up 3.8% of total forestry exports (3.6% in January 2024).
The lion’s share of forestry industry exports in January 2025 went to the United Kingdom (16.9%), Sweden (10.2%) and Denmark (10.2%).
Compared to January 2024, exports to the UK dropped by 11.2% to EUR 48.798 million, exports to Seden declined by 11.4% to EUR 29.576 million, and exports to Denmark dropped by 15.8% to EUR 29.571 million.
Latvia exported a total of EUR 288.123 million worth of forestry industry products during the first month of 2025.
Source: BNS
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