Last summer was the wettest in Latvia in the past 80 years, while January 2026 was the coldest since 2010. These conditions have driven record-high demand for heat energy. In January 2026, AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) delivered more than 120 thousand loose cubic metres of energy wood chips, equivalent to more than 100 thousand MWh of heat energy. This is the largest volume of wood chips produced and delivered in a single month in the company's history.
LVM's record volume of chipping and wood chip deliveries was achieved thanks to targeted sales activities carried out in the spring and autumn of 2025, which secured sales of energy wood chips for the 2025/2026 heating season. Demand for energy wood chips is volatile and is significantly affected by the weather – some of the lowest wood chip delivery volumes were recorded in August and September 2025, whereas 2026 has begun with a sharp rise in demand.
Mārtiņš Krūze, Head of Energy Wood Products at LVM, explains:
“The exceptionally low air temperatures in January 2026 have a significant impact on the LVM delivery process – demand for wood chips, particularly from heat supply companies, is very high, and several customers have expressed a wish to receive wood chips up to the maximum positive deviation set out in their contract. In such market conditions, the advantage lies with customers who have opted for long-term cooperation with LVM, ensuring stable and predictable wood chip deliveries regardless of market fluctuations. Additional priority in day-to-day delivery planning is given to customers who purchase wood chips together with the delivery schedule service, which ensures coordinated deliveries up to a specified number of loads per day.”
High demand for energy wood chips and frosty conditions make it possible to reach, chip and deliver to customers those stocks that are inaccessible in other weather conditions. At the same time, the wet summer and prolonged frost also create additional challenges in the delivery process – uncovered and older piles of logging residues have an elevated moisture content, and in hard frost they freeze and are unsuitable for chipping. Likewise, wood chips with a higher moisture content may freeze during transport or while waiting to be unloaded at the customer's delivery site, which calls for closer delivery planning and prompt coordination.
To reduce the impact of rainfall on the drying of energy wood in the piles, LVM covers part of its stocks with a special covering material. This ensures that rain and snow do not get into the energy wood pile, improving the drying process.
Ensuring stable energy wood chip deliveries requires timely planning of the volumes to be supplied, which makes it possible to maintain appropriate stock levels and secure the availability of chipping services. LVM encourages buyers of energy wood chips to plan their wood chip consumption in good time and to take part in the sales procedures organised by LVM in order to guarantee deliveries of a set volume throughout the heating season.
To provide customers with stable and predictable wood chip delivery volumes during the heating season, LVM builds up stocks at temporary wood chip storage sites over the summer period. In this record-volume month too, more than 20% of the volume of wood chips delivered to customers came from these temporary storage sites.
LVM energy wood chips are produced from logging residues arising from roundwood production, as well as from wood obtained through the clearing of overgrowth and young stand tending work. The energy wood chips supplied by LVM are an environmentally friendly and sustainable resource for energy production.