Russia To Export $1 Bln In Logs This Year
Copyright 2001 Interfax News Agency
October 31, 2001
Moscow -- Russia will export more than 40 million cubic meters of round timber worth more than$ 1 billion this year, First Deputy Natural Resources Minister Yuri Kukuyev, who heads the State Forestry Service, told Interfax.
The forestry service estimates that Russian exports of forest and paper products could total$ 4.5 billion this year.
Kukuyev said the country would log about 140 million cubic meters of commercial timber this year, 6% more than in 2000.
However, according to the size of logging areas, Russia could harvest up to 541 million cubic meters of commercial timber annually, he said. Logging peaked in 1991, when the country felled about 380 million cubic meters of commercial timber, Kukuyev said.
Russia has some 75 billion cubic meters of timber, or 25% of global reserves, he said.