Winter’s storms precipitate two-year shortage of pine wood

The impact of Storm Kristin on the pine industry in Portugal is set to continue for a further two years, with the timber shortage seriously affecting the sector, which has lost 50% of its annual raw material requirements, the country’s Pine Centre has estimated

The industry has already been affected by the fires of 2015 and 2017. But Storm Kristin really put the boot in.

“According to our calculations, it took away around two million cubic metres of timber, practically half the sector’s annual requirement,” João Gonçalves, president of Centro PINUS tells Lusa news agency.

During a field visit to the Alva de Pataias forest area, Alcobaça district, in central Portugal, the association outlined management measures for the forest destroyed by the storm on January 28, highlighting the difficulties faced by more than 300 stakeholders – including producers and processors.

“This sector is already facing a very serious shortage of supply,” said Gonçalves, estimating that the 50% drop in supply resulting from the storm “will, within a year or two, put 88% of jobs in the forestry sector at risk”, particularly in the country’s approximately 250 sawmills, which “will not be able to keep operating” due to the shortage of raw materials.

Exploring solutions to “mitigate the impact” was the aim of the field visit, which brought together more than three dozen industry experts at a pine plantation sold by the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF) to an industrial owner who, last week, cleared trees blown down by Kristin across 16 hectares of pine forest.

The timber “could have been stored in timber yards” and, in that case, could have “retained its quality for use in four or five years’ time”. However, João Gonçalves laments that “only now, five months later, has the ministerial order for the temporary construction of timber yards been issued”, which has prevented landowners from minimising the value of their losses.

According to Gonçalves, “it will take at least one year” before the fallen trees can be properly managed.

“Operators are working as best they can, but there are no more operators (than those who were already operating before the storm) and the affected area is very large,” he explains.

Five months after the storm, the Pine Centre president acknowledges that the only positive aspect is the fact that there are large quantities of pine cones, which will enable the natural reforestation of pine forests.

The Centro PINUS, in collaboration with the ICNF, “has managed to harvest 10 tonnes of pine cones, equivalent to 300 kilograms of seed”, which is the figure “harvested on average in a year” which will enable natural reforestation of other pine forests elsewhere in the country.

The centre was established in 1998 to “promote the environmental, social and economic importance of maritime pine in Portuguese forests”.

The non-profit association brings together the main stakeholders in the sector, including representatives from forestry production, service providers, industry, public administration, higher education and the financial sector.

Source: LUSA