Forestry industry trade by degree of wood processing in the enlarged European Union countries

Abstract

This paper analyses the forestry industry trade of the New Member States (NMS-11) of the European Union (EU) on the enlarged EU-27 markets, focusing on three groups of wood products: raw wood, semi-finished and finished wood products in the 1999–2010 period. The best performing NMS-11 country in the forestry industry trade with the enlarged EU-27 is Cyprus with a trade surplus mostly based on finished or at least semi-finished wood products. The results suggest a convergence in the forestry industry trade specialisation of the NMS-11 countries. A significant variation in the mobility of the forestry industry trade specialisation is found, but with a deterioration in forestry industry trade specialisation patterns over time. The results suggest the crucial role that the wood-processing and furniture industries can play with finished wood products and their backward linkages to raw wood and semi-finished wood products for forestry industry competitiveness. Forestry industry management should focus on better quality and greater trade competitiveness in the vertical wood industry supply chains from lower to higher value-added and marketed wood products.