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MRiT hosts consultation with wood industry

On February 6, 2024, a consultative meeting of representatives of key wood industry organizations was held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Development and Technology. Among the participants in the constructive debate were representatives of our Association: J. Majewski (MM Kwidzyn), J. Turski (SPP general director). The meeting was hosted by Waldemar Sługocki – secr. of state / deputy minister of the MRiT. The delegation of wood industry structures was led by P. Poziomski – President of the Polish Economic Chamber of Wood Industry. The main purpose of the meeting was to pass on signals from the various sectors of the wood industry, which indicated the extremely difficult situation of wood raw material processing plants due to the drastic deterioration of operating conditions. The following were mentioned as particularly threatening to stable operations:

• Lack of predictability in the supply of timber from the PGL LP stock.
• Extraordinarily high levels of output prices for timber estimated by LP.
• Increase in operating costs due to increase in costs of: wood raw material, labor, electricity and heat consumption, transportation services, increase in fiscal obligations, other factors.
• Loss of competitive position of domestic wood plants in the Community market and external markets (outside the EU).
• The need to shut down part of the installed capacity of many companies and layoffs of employees are a source of social tensions, especially located in low-urbanized, peripheral areas.

It was pointed out that there is an urgent need to change the conditions for reducing the difficult situation of the industry, such as the introduction of transparent rules for the wood market; the elimination of subsidies for the combustion of full-value wood in the professional power sector; the restoration of certification under the FSC system by rdLP; the unblocking of imports of post-consumer wood / the introduction of a national classification of post-consumer wood. They also called for the reactivation of a cross-sectoral team for the wood industry to develop a coherent strategy for long-term development.

Photos: J. Turski (SPP)