The end of timber imports from Russia may lead to the loss of thousands of jobs in Finland’s forestry industry according to Finnish Forest Research Institute.

Dr Anne Toppinen, senior researcher at the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Metla) told the Finnish News Agency (STT) on Wednesday that the full implementation of Russian export duties may end timber imports from Russia within a couple of years. Forestry jobs would consequently be lost if imports could not be replaced with domestic timber.

“The duties could cause closures in units that are already struggling with profitability,” Dr Toppinen said.

The Russian government has announced it will considerably increase export duties for timber by stages spread over a number of years.

In 2006 Finland imported 16 million cubic metres of timber and wood chip from Russia. The total timber consumption in Finnish forest industry last year was at 75 million cubic metres.

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