Troubled Swiss wood industry

Log harvest volumes in Switzerland have been falling for years. In the key assortment softwood logs, 2.24 million solid cubic meters were extracted from the forest last year. This is 12.8% less than in 2011 (2.57 million sm³) and the smallest amount since more than 30 years, reports Holzindustrie Schweiz, the association of the Swiss wood industry. Harvest volumes declined by 58% in the Swiss Kanton of Thurgau, by 45% in Zurich and by 42% Lucerne. Experts believe that the drop is a result of current low timber prices and the difficult conditions for Swiss producers in the wake of the strong Swiss franc.

"The raw wood processing industry, united in the task force Wald + Holz + Energie (forest + wood + energy TF WHE), is really concerned about the new figures of forestry statistics. The pace and extent of the decline in harvest rates particularly in the key assortment are alarming", says TF WHE managing director Hansruedi Streiff.