Anton Zebants took part in the online conference “Forest Products Markets: Changes, Opportunities, Prospects”.

The event was also attended by representatives of timber industry enterprises and industry communities.

Conference participants discussed the results of forestry in 2022, the situation on the markets for timber products in China and the current status of negotiations on a free trade zone of the EAEC with third countries and much more.

Anton Zebants, General Director of JSC Group of Companies VLP invited by the organizers as an expert, spoke on “The timber industry complex: the current situation and the necessary support measures”.

 

“For us – “Vologda woodworkers” – there are now three things that prevent us from working effectively in terms of logging: the ban on exports to unfriendly countries, the reduction of domestic processing of round timber and import substitution in the timber industry.

We believe that the timber industry needs both operational and strategic support measures. By operational measures we can include: subsidizing increased logistics costs, fixing the quota for rail transport, a moratorium on the indexation of tariffs for the transportation of round timber, charging rents for forest land based on the actual volume of harvested timber, the exclusion of legislation on timber accounting for timber, under the regime of customs control. And to the strategic: the development of infrastructure to meet the needs of industrial enterprises in the transportation of products from the European part of Russia in the direction of the East and Southern ports, the need to hold talks at the governmental level on the restoration and increase of multimodal transport from the port of St. Petersburg by Chinese and other friendly sea lines, supporting the implementation of investment projects in the field of forest development, compensation of forest land tenants for the construction of forest roads”, — Anton Zebants noted.

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