Last year, with rapidly rising energy prices, consumers purchased firewood products with a reserve, and made big stocks for the whole season. A spokesman for the forest management and timber industry company PAT Group, Jānis Mierkalns, said that the price of chipped wood on the market has fallen by around 50%, but household demand for wood has not yet climbed significantly.
"The [price] drop is significant and if we are adding the logical increase in the cost of producing inflation down, then it can be said that we are already close to how it was at the beginning of last year. [..] There are different units of measure, but if we look at the whole group of wood for fuel, then the price has fallen by 40-50% compared to its highest price point last year.
"People are interested in prices, about the availability of wood, but you can't say there is a lot of activity right now. Stocks were well-prepared for this winter and are still being used by households," Mierkalns said.
Meanwhile, the wood supply company Kadiķi ARV representative Arnis Resnis said that although the market price for wood fuels falls, wood from forest processors could not yet be purchased at the lowest pre-war price. He also confirmed that people were actively interested in the price of wood, but that they were still discouraged from buying.
Residents could also receive support throughout the last heating season and can still apply for this support by the end of the month.
Representatives of the “E-silva” forest auction system in Latvia forecast that the price of wood will reach its lowest point in May, but in the middle of the summer, when households start preparing for the next heating season and demand for energy wood will rise again, there could be a rise in price.
