According to the Agricultural Ministry, in January 2019, Latvia saw an increase of 24.4% in its forestry products, an increase of 24.4% on last year and representing €235.857million in exports.  

The bulk of these exports (88.2%) were made up of timber and timber products compared to 63.6% one year ago.  This represents a 31.3% year-on-year increase, a sum of around €208.08million.

Sawn timber exports were down 1.5% year-on-year with revenue of €49.004million. Firewood exports saw an increase of 97.1 % year-on-year rising to €46.601million.  Other export increases were seen in round timber (46.6% to €€22.53 million, plywood (23.6 % to €19.178 million) and woodchip plates (1.4% to €18.234million).

Reductions in exports were experienced from January 2018 in wooden furniture (by 28.6% to €10.915million), it also fell as a percentage of total forestry product exports to 4.6%, from 8.1% the previous year.  Exports of paper, cardboard and related products also fell by 1.8%, down to €9.665million, a reduction to 4.1%  of total exports compared to 5.2% in the previous year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. Latvia’s main markets for forestry products are the UK, Estonia and Sweden, making up 18.6%, 12.5% and 11/5% of the market respectively.

Latvia’s total forestry exports reached €189.573billion in January 2018.