In April 2022, the European Union ban included timber and wood products as part of the fifth package of anti-Russian sanctions. Before that, Russia was the largest country that exported wood and its products to European countries.
As for the United States, which last year was the third major exporter of timber to the European Union, its supplies over two years increased by 1.6 times - to $1.3 billion. Among the top ten major suppliers, only Turkey was able to significantly increase supplies - doubling in one go to $440 million. Cameroon recorded a slight increase (31%), Norway (12%) and Britain (10%).
Russia's neighbors benefited from European sanctions: Kyrgyzstan significantly increased the volume of its exports in monetary terms: supplies increased 6,448 times compared to 2021, reaching $8.8 million.
Kazakhstan also managed to significantly increase wood sales – by 324 times, reaching $136.2 million. Tajikistan also has good dynamics - an increase of 6.3 times to 129.9 thousand dollars. Georgia increased volumes 3.39 times, to 12.5 million dollars, Azerbaijan - 3.3 times, to 868.7 thousand dollars, and Armenia - 1.46 times, to 449.4 thousand dollars.
Earlier, five European Union countries - Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia - demanded that the European Commission impose restrictions on grain imports from Russia and Belarus.
Source: Novosti