Dear listmembers,
I feel the importance of forest products markets in determining the
economic conditions for forestry is often underestimated or even
forgotten by forestry specialists. So you might be interested in the
latest offical assessment of the situation now and the outlook for the
rest of 1998 and 1999, prepared by the UN/ECE Timber Committee at its
session which finished yesterday. The statement and accompanying
staistics cover production, consumption and trade of reoundwood,
sawnwood, wood-based panels in Europe, North America and Russia. The
statement and 2 overview tables are available at
http://www.unece.org/trade/timber (along with other relevant
information ,,including the annual review of markets in 1997 and early
1998). Country forecasts will be made available and published on
paper and the web shortly.
In brief the message is that 1997 and 1998 have seen fairly high, even
record levels of production, but there is huge uncertainty arising
from the global financial crisis, so the outlook is for rather
difficult times!
We welcome any comments and suggestions you may have (send to
info.timber@unece.org)
Thank you all
Kit Prins
Chief, Timber Section
UN/ECE Trade Division
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