In rural areas of Romania in particular, a vast majority of households still uses firewood for heating © Pixabay
As the draft shows, the government wants to set a price of €100/m³ (RON 500) including VAT for firewood as well as €400/t (RON 2000) and €300/t (RON 1500) plus VAT, respectively, for pellets and briquettes. DIY stores and commercial forestry companies sell firewood for around €140/m³ (RON 700) and pellets for up to €900/t (RON 4500) before the start of the heating season. As Romania-insider.com reports, this corresponds to a tripling of the price compared to 2019. In the event of non-compliance, sellers face fines which are ranging from €600 to €1000.
In the justification section of the draft, the government points out that many households, particularly those in rural areas, are dependent on firewood and that the production costs for forest owners and firewood manufacturers range from RON 60 to RON 543/m³ and are thus significantly lower than the retail price paid by end consumers.
According to economedia.ro, around 3 million Romanian households use wood and wood byproducts for heating. In rural areas, 85% of households are completely dependent on wood for the generation of heat.
The Romanian State Forests Romsilva have made 1.2 million m³ of firewood available to the population in the first eight months, that is 363,000 m³ more than in the same period of last year. Until the end of the year, Romsilva plans to offer an additional 500,000 m³ of the harvested wood as firewood.
