International wood-fuel trade – an overview

Abstract

Biomass is becoming a strategic resource of energy. Fuel-wood and charcoal, together with other biofuels such as bagasse, provide 10-15 % of the world total annual primary energy consumption. They are mainly used for the production of thermal energy in both developing countries (DgCs) and developed countries (DdCs). In DgCs the energy derived from wood-fuels is used for cooking and heating by the household and small-scale commercial sectors. Their large-scale industrial utilisation worldwide is much smaller but is a strategic option to fulfil the Kyoto agreement displacing fossil fuels and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, many DdCs already use a significant share of biofuels in their energy supply. The market expansion of biofuels is the result of a combination of factors such as new energy and environmental policies, high international fossil fuel prices and low production and transportation costs. Some OECD countries have developed quite large new markets for different types of biofuels such as charcoal, wood-fuels and wood pellets. There is a growing interest in the international trade, because the trade can provide biofuels at lower prices, in larger quantities and of better quality than domestic alternatives. The first signs of an international market price for wood-fuel are emerging in Europe. Since international trade has been recently established the official statistics do not fully record the trade movements. However, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the European Forestry Institute (EFI) have made some efforts to revise existing data from main sources of information which have been used in this report. Special studies carried out by different actors have also been used. It has been estimated that cross-border trade in solid biofuels (including wood-fuels) in Europe has reached a level of almost 50 PJ/annum. This report gives a brief overview over the trade in wood-fuel at international and European level. The results show that there are some “hot” trade spots and trails in Europe, in South-East Asia and in North America.