Nicolae Ţucunel: "The price of timber in Romania is set by five or six Arabs!"

Ovidiu Vrânceanu, Braşov

The chairman of the Braşov Chamber of Trade and Commerce, Nicolae Ţucunel, yesterday said, during a Romanian-German forum which brought together companies operating in the timber industry, "that the price of timber in Romania is set by a group of five to six Arab buyers, who form an alliance and buy high quality timber at very low prices". He said that if Romanian companies operating in the wood industry are to do better, the timber ranking system needs to be changed. "Romania has a three-class ranking system for timber, whereas the United States have a six-class system, and Germany has as many as ten quality levels for timber", Ţucunel said, who also mentioned that his company, Forex SRL Ghimbav, earned on average EUR 310 per cubic meter of timber after the six-class sorting system was implemented, whereas other Romanian companies, that use the Romanian timber classification system, earned at best USD 360 per cubic meter of timber, (less than EUR 310).

On the other hand, Ţucunel, one of the most important business men in the timber sector, said that in Romania earnings in the forestry sector are far lower than in other countries. "The earnings per cubic meter before shipping are just 50 Lei per cubic meter, a price that doesn"t even cover the salaries for workers", he said, and he also added that this sector is still experiencing sluggish growth, as Romania only has about 150 funiculars for log transportation, "whereas before 1989 there were 150 funiculars in the county of Braşov alone".

• 20 German companies are looking for Romanian partners

The cooperation forum "Forst/Holz", organized by Bayern Inovative, taking place between May 25th- May 27th in Braşov, is attended by 50 companies domestic and foreign companies. The 20 participating German companies from Bavaria are looking for opportunities to cooperate with Romanian companies. As a matter of fact, German business people have always been extremely interested in the evolution of Romania"s timber industry, and showed interest in Romanian prices and earnings of companies in the timber sector.

The organizers of the event yesterday expressed their confidence that the forum would help create new partnerships, as similar events held in other countries helped sign contracts worth millions of Euros.

• Romania to have over 6.8 million hectares of forestland by 2013

Officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development consider that the efforts towards the reforestation of Romania will soon yield results. "Right now, Romania has 6.485 million hectares of woodland, of which 4.691 million hectares are owned by the state, and another 1.794 million hectares are privately owned. We estimate that in 2013, Romania will have over 6.8 million hectares of woodland, whereas at the end of 2001 Romania"s total woodland was less than 6.4 million hectares", said Ioan Munteanu, a ministry official.