Duration: 2010-2012
Keywords: Eastern Europe, bioenergy, business environment, forest resources
Research project group: Developing Forest Sector in Russia and Central and East European Countries - Impacts in Finland
The aim of the project is to create an information service for the Belarusian, Estonian, Czech, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Slovakian and Ukrainian forest sectors and to strengthen knowledge relating to it. Information on the business environment in the countries of the project area will be assembled. The goal is to find business opportunities and new markets in the project countries.
The target groups of the project are Finnish forest enterprises and technology manufacturers planning to enter the business or expand it in the countries of the project area.
The project is funded by ESF and will be executed in 2010–2012. The co-ordinator of the project is the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla). Other partners are the Mikkeli Small Business Centre at the Aalto University School of Economics, the School of Forest Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, North Karelia University of Applied Sciences and North Karelia College in Valtimo.
In the project an information service will be created which will cover essential information on the forestry business environment in the Central and Eastern European transition market countries (CEE) in Finnish. The information service will be a part of the Metinfo service, maintained by Metla. Maintenance of the service will be continued after the project by Metla and it will be used as a channel for producing and supplying information which predicts customers' information requirements.
The information service will serve as a tool supporting decision-making for the forest cluster enterprises. Users will be able to exploit it while considering starting a business or marketing activities in the project countries.
The project will collect information about the business environment of the forest sector, wood availability, forest sector enterprises and bioenergy markets of the CEE countries. Information will be published as a part of the information service.
The forest sector business environment part will contain a description of forest resources, forest ownership and use, wood procurement and wood trade. Related to this, in the case studies the requirements for the transfer of Eastern Finnish technology and know-how will be analysed.
The bioenergy part will cover the survey of bioenergy markets (energy production, infrastructure and biomass potential) of the project countries. As a part of this, the present state and scenarios of the pellet industry and its effects on Finland and possibilities for the Eastern Finnish enterprises will be mapped. The market for the Eastern Finnish forest technology will be estimated with the help of case studies. The manufacturers' improving knowledge on the project countries opens export opportunities for technology with which it is possible to utilize all parts of woody biomass. These parts, relating to bioenergy, aim at increasing the export of plants for heating and the use of wood as energy.
The aim of the sub-project is to examine the possibilities of improving wood supply in the particular target countries, to calculate the availability of the appropriate bioenergy raw material, to determine the best delivery chains to the potential targets and to determine training needs.
In addition to this, in the project there will be created a wood energy online database which will contain a map application and information about sawmills of the project countries, pellet manufacturers and heat plans. In the project will be also created a cost accounting tool with which costs of wood procurement in the project countries will be defined.
The tools will help to understand local circumstances which will improve product and service marketing in the project area.
The geographical location of forest and woodworking enterprises in the project countries will be analyzed and they will be evaluated from the point of view of Eastern Finland.
Project leader:
Karvinen, Sari
The Finnish Forest Research Institute,
Joensuu Office,
PL 68, FI-80101 JOENSUU, FINLAND
Phone: +358 10 211 3256 Telefax: +358 10 211 2103
E-mail: sari.karvinen@metla.fi
Other researchers: Marttila, Juhani, JO (2010-12), Prinz, Robert, JO (2011-12)
Updated 25.05.2012
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