Russia

Asia's Share in Russia's Lumber Exports Up to 98%

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Asia has replaced Europe as a destination for Russian lumber exports, with the share of Central Asia rising to almost 100% and China continuing to lead the pack of importers, the federal forest inventory manager said.
Sputnik
"The Russian wood industry has managed to quickly replace the European export markets with Asian ones. Their share in the exports by country has reached 98%, versus some 87% reported last year and 76% in the pre-sanctions period," Roslesinforg said.
The European Union imposed a ban on wood product imports from Russia as part of its fifth sanctions package in April 2022. The EU executive estimated that Russia’s wood product exports made up about 2% of the country’s exports to the 27-nation bloc.
Roslesinforg, which conducts national forest inventories, said Russia’s lumber exports fell 10% in 2023 from the year before, to 20.7 million cubic meters, which it said was above the worst-case scenario forecast of 30%.
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China remained the biggest importer of Russian lumber, with roughly 13 million cubic meters of imports (unchanged from 2022), followed by Central Asia’s Uzbekistan with over 2 million (up 8%) and Kazakhstan with 926,000 (up 17%). Other major importers included Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Hong Kong.
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