The plan, which has been developed by the federal Ministry of Industry and Energy, states that 1.2 trillion RUB will have to be invested in the industry over the next 12 years. The restructuring of the industry will make Russia a leading country within forestry processing, newspaper Vedomosti reports.
The support of domestic processing is made partly with the raise of export tariffs on round timber. Last summer, the tariffs were increased from 4 to 10 EUR per cubic meters, then to 15 EUR in April this year. By 2009, the tariffs will be increased further to 50 EUR per cubic meters.
The Russian forestry industry remains highly under-developed. Although the country possesses far more forests than a country like the USA, Russia still produces 11 times less paper products. As a matter of fact, the Russian forest processing industry has not yet managed to overcome the crisis of the post-Soviet period. According to Vedomosti, Russia today produces 70 percent less wood products than in year 1990, and 8,4 percent less paper products.