“During the election campaign I was speaking about it a lot when our opposition members were calling for reforms. These are the reforms – we need to develop and advance production relying on forestry resources,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
He remarked that Belarusian enterprises have already learned to make the so-called semi-finished products – pulp and paper. “Let's make, for example, cardboard to substitute imported cardboard from Poland, Germany. Let's make it here instead of exporting pulp and buying finished cardboard. We need to do it immediately. We need to install a machine to produce cardboard and packaging,” the president stressed.
According to the head of state, the majority of work in this area should be done next year. “Whatever the cost,” he said.
According to the Belarusian timber, woodworking, pulp and paper industry concern Bellesbumprom, the role of the forestry industry in the Belarusian industry has increased significantly after the modernization of basic wood processing, pulp and paper companies. The wood processing industry was increasingly vibrant, its output exceeded 20 million cubic meters in 2019.
The modernization of board production enterprises allowed processing low-grade wood. Its consumption will make up 5.2 million cubic meters in 2020. Modernized producers of fuel pellets will additionally process 2.8 million cubic meters of hardwood.
The launch of modernized wood processing complexes gave a significant boost to furniture manufacturers. Enterprises use local materials – wood boards – in the manufacture of cost-effective and in-demand furniture. In the past five years the number of furniture manufacturers doubled to exceed 1,300.
Bellesbumprom enterprises specialize in deep wood processing, make products with a high added value, and export more than 70% of the output. In 2020, in spite of the difficult coronavirus situation, Bellesbumprom enterprises managed to keep the production and export volumes stable. In January-August their export made up $377.9 million.
