Operational results for AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) show that the company closed 2025 with a profit of 204.3 million euros after corporate income tax, which is 54.2 million euros, or 36%, above the 2024 result.
Zane Driņķe, Chair of the Supervisory Board of AS “Latvijas valsts meži”, notes:
“Although 2025 was on the whole a difficult year for both “Latvijas valsts meži” and the Latvian forest sector because of conditions on the international timber market, the company managed not only to increase its income from sales of wood products substantially, but also to reduce costs by optimising its production processes. This allowed the company to exceed its planned profit figures and to close the year with a profit of more than 204 million euros. The contribution of “Latvijas valsts meži” to state and municipal budgets in 2025 was 213 million euros, strengthening the country’s prosperity and security.
My thanks go to all of the company’s employees and cooperation partners for the work they have put in so that we could achieve these outstanding results in 2025 together.”
LVM revenue for the reporting period reached 615.8 million euros, of which 580.6 million euros, or 94%, came from sales of wood products. Alongside forest management and the production of wood products, LVM collects seeds and grows genetically high-value forest tree seedlings, manages more than 180 mineral extraction sites, develops and expands LVM GEO, an extensive platform of geospatial information technology (GIT) products and services, and maintains and improves more than 300 free outdoor recreation sites.
A 9% rise in the price of roundwood contributed to the increase in revenue last year, even though the volume of roundwood sold was lower than the year before. In 2024, part of the volume of timber sold consisted of wood obtained while dealing with the consequences of the European spruce bark beetle, which provided an unplanned additional volume. In 2025, by contrast, LVM was able to meet its plan and supply the volume needed by the timber industry despite difficult weather conditions and challenges in the production process, selling a total of 7.06 million cubic metres of roundwood.
The impact of global processes on the Latvian forest sector
LVM customers who buy roundwood for further processing sell most of their finished products outside Latvia. Demand for roundwood in Latvia therefore depends on conditions in the markets for those finished products.
For Latvian timber processors, 2025 passed in a fairly challenging atmosphere, in which expectations of “tariff wars” and prolonged uncertainty about changes in the global trade climate made the path of development still less clear. Another factor holding back activity in the timber industry is weak construction activity in Europe, as this sector is the most important consumer of building structures. In the largest export market for building structures – the United Kingdom – the outlook for the construction sector has worsened this year compared with last year’s relatively optimistic expectations. In Germany, too – the heavyweight of the European economy – construction sector indicators at the start of 2026 no longer support the optimism that emerged in late 2025, when confidence indicators in the construction business improved sharply. There are therefore currently no convincing indications that would suggest a sharp upturn in demand for roundwood in Latvia.
The volume of seedlings sold is growing
LVM manages eight tree nurseries in which top-quality selected forest tree seedlings are grown. In 2025, a total of 55.7 million forest tree seedlings were grown and sold, 2.9 million more than the year before. Of the total volume, 30.27 million seedlings were used to regenerate state forests, while 25.4 million were sold to external customers, 9.8 million of which were exported to the Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
Greater demand for minerals
By managing more than 100 mineral extraction sites, LVM provides access to high-value, high-quality mineral materials and mixtures of them throughout Latvia. In 2025, LVM sold 1.3 million cubic metres of mineral materials and mixtures, which is 42.7 thousand cubic metres, or 3%, more than the year before.
Weather affects demand for wood chips
In 2025, LVM sold 647.4 thousand MWh of wood chips, generating revenue of 12.9 million euros, which is 1.4 million euros, or 10%, less than the year before. The decrease is explained by lower demand for energy wood chips because of the mild winter in 2025, which resulted in a 6% lower selling price for wood chips.
Investment in the company’s development
In 2025, 34.1 million euros were invested in the company’s development, including 59%, or 18.6 million euros, in forest infrastructure that is important for production – the renovation and construction of forest roads and bridges and the restoration of forest drainage systems. In 2025, construction work was completed on 107 kilometres of forest roads and is continuing on a further 9 kilometres. For the construction of forest drainage systems, which matter for growing quality forests, design work was carried out last year over an area of 14.99 thousand hectares, construction work was completed at sites covering 12.9 thousand hectares, and construction work is still under way at sites covering 6 thousand hectares.
New solutions introduced for greater efficiency
2025 was marked by achievements in several areas. Last year LVM became the first company in Latvia to obtain a PEFC RED II certificate (PEFC licence code: PEFC/12-31-005), which confirms the company’s ability to produce energy wood products sustainably and responsibly, and its commitment to continue doing so in the future.
Last year LVM was chosen as a supplier to AS “Dalgas” for the introduction of the LVM GEO forest management solution in Denmark and Germany. LVM GEO will thus provide the solution and support both to the foresters of AS “Dalgas” and to the forest owners whose properties the company looks after in Denmark, Germany and the Baltic states. This contract is a purposeful step towards the export markets LVM GEO has set for itself.
In 2025, LVM introduced modern solutions into its operations that help to optimise day-to-day work. For example, the use of electronic delivery notes for roundwood deliveries began last year. Invaluable support for this is provided by the “GEO Truck” mobile app, which ensures that, for everyone involved in timber deliveries – LVM, cooperation partners and customers – timber flow data is handled in digital form only, right up to delivery to the customer.
The company is continually developing and building optimisation solutions that make it possible to automate and improve decision-making processes. For example, in 2025 an optimisation solution was created for the timber supply chain that reduces timber transport distances and therefore costs as well, making savings of up to 5 million euros a year possible.
LVM is currently working actively on solutions for automating forest inventory, planning and forest monitoring using remote sensing data and machine learning algorithms developed by LVM, which are due to be trialled in the company’s everyday planning and control processes as early as this year.
LVM is active in environmental protection projects
Using external co-financing, LVM is carrying out three environmental projects. In addition to the two existing environmental projects – “LIFE-IP LatViaNature” and “LIFE GoodWater IP” – in 2025 LVM, as lead partner, carried out the first work under the project “Restoration of mire ecosystems in specially protected nature territories 2024-2029”, in the course of which habitats associated with mire ecosystems will be managed and restored over an area of at least 1,500 hectares in order to improve the quality of protected habitats of European Union importance. The restoration of mire ecosystems will take place in specially protected nature territories, and the project’s cooperation partner is the Nature Conservation Agency.
A record number of visitors at the LVM nature park in Tērvete
Since the company was founded, more than 300 free recreation sites have been created and are continuously maintained across Latvia – bog boardwalks, nature trails, dendrological parks, picnic sites in forests and by water, viewing towers and more.
LVM also manages one of the most popular tourist destinations among Latvian and foreign visitors – the Latvijas valsts meži nature park in Tērvete. In 2025 the park was visited by 166.7 thousand people, the highest figure in the park’s almost 70-year history. 46% of visitors came from abroad.