"We no longer want to purchase Russian and Belarusian timber products because we believe that, even indirectly, we must not participate in financing the war," said Kristaps Klauss, Executive Director of the Latvian Forest Industry Federation, regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He explained that last year Latvia exported three million cubic metres of softwood planks to Russia, and import volumes from Russia and Belarus to Latvia had also been high until now – 1.1 million cubic metres of planks.

If we look at the Baltic states as a whole, the procurement of raw materials from Belarus and Russia was highly significant. In total, all three of us, the Baltic states, purchased three million cubic metres of softwood planks from Russia and Belarus, as well as a fairly large volume of MDF (fibreboard) for the furniture industry, and we purchased softwood plywood needed for construction, along with other raw timber products.
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