Sergey Ivanov: No more cheap timber exports
Sergey Ivanov
During his visit to the Komi capital of Syktyvkar this week, First Deputy PM Sergey Ivanov stressed that Russia would no longer be an exporter of cheap timber. –Export taxes on round timber will continue to increase, he warned foreign importers.
Visiting the Syktyvkar Forest Processing plant, one of the country’s biggest pulp and paper plants, Mr. Ivanov said to newspaper Vedomosti that “the state has to set the general rules” and “increase customs fees on exports of round timber, and create conditions for private business – Russian or foreign – to construct high-tech companies on forest processing”.
Mr. Ivanov, one of the contesters for the next Russian presidency, added that “forest, in contrast to oil and gas, is a renewable raw material, and we have to conquer the markets not with cheap round timber, but with quality furniture, excellent paper and other processed forest products”.
The Russian government has the last months repeatedly warned that it will increase export taxes on round timbers. Reactions have been harsh in Finland, where a major part of the paper and pulp industry is dependent on Russian raw materials. Also in the Russian East, and especially along the border to China, the round timber exports are significant.
