High proceeds from the sale of fine woods in Saxony

The sale of valuable timber has once again generated high revenues for Saxony's forest owners this year. An average of 574 euros per cubic meter was paid at the timber submission, a kind of auction, as the state-owned company Sachsenforst announced on Thursday. This was around nine percent less than in the record year of 2023, but 19 percent higher than the result in 2022. 781 cubic meters of wood from private, municipal, church and state forests were auctioned off. The total of 525 logs came from forestry operations from Vogtland to Upper Lusatia and together fetched 448,194 euros - almost 100,000 euros less than in the previous year for 859 cubic meters.

In the auction, interested parties submit written bids after inspecting the wood. The highest bidder then receives the respective trunk later. The money helps to cope with the "historically high damage", especially due to massive bark beetle infestation and drought", and to finance investments in reforestation, especially in the difficult situation that has persisted for years, said Thomas Rother from Sachsenforst.

According to him, demand from the timber industry for valuable logs remains high. Veneer and sawmills, timber traders, craftsmen, instrument makers, barrel and flooring manufacturers from Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Austria have purchased. The wood is used to make "fine veneers, high-quality furniture or musical instruments", said Agriculture Minister Wolfram Günther (Greens).

The top price of 3274 euros per cubic meter was paid for an English oak from the Dresden forest district. The whole trunk - eight meters long and 84 centimeters thick - cost a saw timber and veneer manufacturer from the Spessart region 14,500 euros. Almost half of the wood on offer came from private forests and around 16 percent from state forests. A total of 20 species were on offer, mainly stem oak, sessile oak and red oak as well as larch for softwood.

The submission is a marketplace for the approximately 85,000 forest owners with mostly small areas in the Free State and offers the opportunity to present special logs and achieve good prices. This time, 26 logs did not find a buyer - they will be sold separately afterwards.