Recently, a report submitted by the Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) of the US Department of Agriculture's Overseas Agriculture Bureau showed the latest development of Russian wood pellet production, predicting that the country's pellet industry will continue to grow.
The report pointed out that although Russia's wood pellet production industry is relatively young, the country currently accounts for about 6% of the world's wood pellet exports, and currently ranks eighth in the world in the production of wood pellets, accounting for 3% of the world's total wood pellet production.
Russia produced about 1.75 million tons of wood pellets last year, a 32% increase from 2016. This growth is attributed to the continued strong demand from the EU and new Asian markets, including Japan and China.
In 2017, the country exported about 1.44 million tons of wood pellets, an increase of 34% compared with 2016. This year, the export volume of wood pellets is expected to reach 1.5 million tons. The main export destinations of Russian wood pellets include Denmark, South Korea, Belgium and Sweden.
By 2020, the report predicts that the annual production of wood pellets in Russia will reach 5 million tons, and will increase to 8 million tons by 2025.
The report also reminded that the production statistics of Russian wood pellets may be incomplete, mainly reflecting the production of large factories. Some medium and small facilities operated by large wood processing plants do not report production data.
According to the report, there are currently 10 large wood chip producers in Russia producing about 60% of the wood pellets in the country. Last year, the factories in the Northwest Federal District and the Siberian Federal District accounted for nearly 70% of production.
Russia currently consumes about 320,000 tons of wood pellets. In the medium term, domestic demand is expected to remain stable.
