Challenges in Latvia’s wood industry: prices up and down, emergency situation due to the bark beetle

For a couple of days, an emergency situation has been in effect in many regions of Latvia due to the spread of the bark beetle. Before the bark beetles, last year there was a panic in the firewood, pellets, briquettes and chips market. Not much an usual year, says Artūrs Bukonts, executive director of the Latvian Wood Industry Federation. Didzis Palejs, head of the Latvian Biomass Association, also admits that the situation on the market a year ago was not based on logic. Falling prices after a panic-induced rise, inflation, labor shortages, rising interest rates ...