Around EUR 16 million have been invested in the production building, equipment, technology, and landscaping.
"The production plant with its unique equipment is an important milestone not only in wood processing but also in forestry planning. The world's first hybrid machine developed for Latvijas finieris enables experimentation with thinner diameter logs, which were previously mostly exported or processed into lower value-added products.
"We increase the amount of resources we use and have available to us, while forest owners get higher productivity from every hectare of land used for targeted forestry," explained Jānis Ciems, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas finieris.
Using smaller diameter and lower quality birch logs at the current harvesting rate in Latvia means that an additional 300,000 m3 of birch wood per year can be used for plywood production.
"The use of thinner trees in production is an opportunity for forest owners and managers to divert more birch wood to the production of plywood products. We believe that good birch stands will be able to produce up to 60% of veneer plywood," said Artis Podnieks, Director of the Birch Solid Wood Supply Service at Latvijas finieris.
A unique hybrid peeling machine has been manufactured for the Kuldīga production site, combining two technologies traditionally used in veneer peeling - spindle and spindleless, enabling the peeling of veneer up to 25 mm core.
"Kuldīgas fabrika" is located in Kuldīga, Ganību Street 12, in the area where the Latvijas finieris wood yard has been operating for several years. The new plant will operate in two shifts, eventually employing up to 30 specialists, as well as a number of local outsourced service providers.
The company pointed out that Kuldīga was not chosen as a development and investment destination by chance. The economic growth potential of the Kurzeme region and the strong tradition of the timber industry, as well as the availability of resources, justified the company's choice to set up a veneer plywood receiving site at an early stage, while already planning future development scenarios, Latvijas finieris said.
