The progress of forest management work is significantly affected both by the weather and by the professionalism of service providers. To look back on what was achieved in 2025 and to strengthen future cooperation, the forest harvesting management team of AS “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM) met with forest harvesting service providers across Latvia.
In total, meetings were held in seven regions, bringing together more than 50 forest harvesting service providers. During the meetings, cooperation to date was discussed, the results achieved were assessed and opportunities for improving future cooperation were considered, along with plans and ideas for the future.
Andris Verners, Executive Director of Forest Harvesting at LVM, explains:
“2025 was a year full of challenges – forest harvesting work took place in the wettest weather conditions of the past 80 years. Despite the difficult situation, LVM, working with experienced service providers, ensured that the planned results were achieved in terms of the volume produced as well as profit and cost indicators. Meetings of this kind are an important step towards building closer cooperation. Together we can better understand the situation in each region and encourage open dialogue. My thanks go to the service providers for their work and for an open and honest conversation in which they shared their suggestions.”
During the meetings, service providers put forward a number of proposals for improving cooperation. These mainly concerned more timely exchange of information about planned forest harvesting work and its volumes, improvements to the procurement system, and development issues – the introduction of digital solutions and more active involvement of service providers in work planning. The proposals raised have been collated and assessed.
Andris Kalnozols, director and manager of the company “Vairogi”, shares his thoughts on the cooperation with LVM, which has continued since 2012:
“We greatly value LVM’s experience and its contribution to promoting and strengthening the development of the forestry sector – for example, high-quality selected forest seedlings are grown in close cooperation with scientists, and the best solutions for the sustainability of road infrastructure are introduced. That provides support and security for private forest owners. Our long-standing cooperation with LVM has given us stability and the chance to learn. As our company is based in the forest, not far from the Sēlija training ground, we are in regular contact with the LVM Vidusdaugava regional district. Naturally, regular communication and information exchange foster better cooperation. In future it would be valuable to ensure a prompt exchange of information on how the district is delivering its annual, quarterly and production task plans. That would create a basis for transparency in cooperation and for even better solutions for carrying out those plans, including in challenging weather conditions. The modern digital solutions that LVM has created could certainly help to make that happen.”
In every region, the participants agreed that it would be worthwhile to hold such meetings regularly, and they identified the topical subjects for discussion: quality requirements for timber assortments, felling site planning tools, the allocation of felling sites and other themes. Having listened to the suggestions of forest harvesting service providers and assessed the questionnaires they completed, the plan is to hold such meetings at least once a year in future.
LVM’s aim is to build sustainable, secure and reliable cooperation with forest harvesting service providers, ensuring responsible forest management and a stable working environment for forestry sector professionals.