Comparative advantages of Russian forest products on the global market

Abstract

Russia possesses the world's largest forest reserves and is one of the major exporters in the world timber market. This paper explores the role of Russian forest products on the global market, taking into account competitiveness both at national and regional levels. The competitiveness level of traded goods was measured with three indicators using the approach of revealed comparative advantages. Analysis covered 153 countries and 81 Russian regions. Compared with previous studies, highly disaggregated data were used. 84 types of forest products were aggregated in 5 main product groups divided on the wood sector and paper sector. Results show that the main specialization in trade for Russia is raw wood and semi-finished wood and paper products. However, more than half of Russian regions demonstrated an advantage in trade in finished wood products while very few regions have comparative advantages in trade in pulp and paper products of high processing degree. Also, it was revealed that regions of the Russian Siberia and the Far East with significant forest reserves tend to have a narrow trade specialization in the export of roundwood and sawnwood. The majority of Russian regions intensively trade timber commodities at the world market. However, their geographical location and resource potential are still not used in the most effective way.