The latest data show that in 2024 more than 11.2 million cubic metres of Russian timber were exported to China, and ever larger volumes of Russian wood are ending up in the Middle East and Africa.
Large, even vast, volumes of Russian timber are waiting to be loaded onto trains in Manzhouli, China's largest inland port. This clearly shows the route by which sanctioned timber can enter global supply chains, transiting through China. Russia is redirecting ever larger volumes of timber to the Middle East and North Africa – the so-called MENA countries – as traders look for ways to diversify in the face of a sluggish Chinese market. According to the latest information presented at the 2025 International Softwood Conference, in 2024 Russia shipped 1.7 million cubic metres of timber to the MENA countries, 550,000 cubic metres of which went to Egypt.
According to Fastmarkets representative Sanjoy Narayan, Russia's sawnwood output currently stands at 28 million cubic metres (during the pandemic it was 32 million cubic metres), while exports have fallen by more than 40% from the 2019 peak, to 18.7 million cubic metres last year. “China absorbs around 60% of Russian exports – 11.2 million cubic metres in 2024. These volumes fell by 10% year on year in the first half of 2025, as prices on the Chinese market remained low,” Sanjoy Narayan stressed. “It should be noted that Russia still exports significant volumes of wood to Japan, maintaining a presence in that important market. This is happening despite European Union sanctions.”
Timber is one of Russia's most important export industries. As one of the world's largest timber producers before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia exported more than 30 billion US dollars' worth of timber to the world's wood markets each year. In September it was reported that the strong rouble, falling Chinese demand and a drop in exports to Europe have driven many Russian timber companies almost to collapse. The report followed a letter from a coalition of Russian timber companies to the country's minister of industry and trade, D. Manturov, calling on the government to allow traders to set up an “operational headquarters” in order to “normalise the sector”.
The letter from the companies, published in late July 2025 by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, warns that the timber and forestry sector is “going through one of the most difficult periods in its modern history”, with total timber harvesting volumes in 2024 down by 13% compared with 2021, before sanctions were introduced. Pulp production has suffered most, with a decline of 3%, and sawn timber a decline of 11%. Russian plywood production has been affected the most of all. Its figures are devastatingly negative, with output down by 23%.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also known as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographical region covering the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa. It exists as an alternative to the concept of the Greater Middle East, which covers most of the Muslim world. There is no standardised definition of the region and variations are possible, but it usually includes Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
As a regional identifier, the term MENA is often used in academia, in military planning, in disaster relief, in media planning (as a broadcast region) and in business documentation. The region also has a number of cultural, economic and environmental similarities across its countries; for example, some of the most extreme effects of climate change will be felt in MENA. Some related terms have a broader definition than MENA, such as MENASA (literally “the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia”) or MENAP (literally “the Middle East and North Africa and Afghanistan and Pakistan”). The term MENAT explicitly includes Turkey, which is usually excluded from some definitions of MENA, although Turkey is almost always considered part of the Middle East. Ultimately, MENA can be seen as a grouping scheme that brings together most of the Arab League countries and, in varying ways, their neighbours, such as Iran, Turkey, Israel, Cyprus, the Caucasus states, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malta and some others.