Interview with Uldis Biķis, Chairman of the Council of Latvijas Finieris JSC
Next year will mark 30 years since 4 May 1990 – a historic day, with historic events... A lot has changed in both the country and the company. In your opinion, what is the most important change?
The most important thing, of course, is freedom in all its manifestations. This includes the free opportunity to pass on knowledge and share information. I would call it knowledge transfer. The volume of information does not remain in one country; Latvia has the opportunity to integrate into the global flow of knowledge. Our membership in the European Union provides even more of this. In my opinion, over these 30 years, Latvia has taken great steps in the country's development, and if knowledge can be shared, it could not be otherwise!
Speaking with LLU academic staff, Latvijas Finieris was praised as an excellent partner in both student engagement and the provision of internships. How has this cooperation developed?
You could say that the cooperation between Latvijas Finieris and LLU is as old as the university itself. In any sector, the most important thing is a knowledge centre that provides the opportunity to build various partnerships and facilitate mutual knowledge transfer, while simultaneously making a joint contribution to the new generation, which then integrates into companies, the sector, and society at large. Land use is the foundation of the economy in Latvia, and LLU is a knowledge centre in this field that is capable of providing links with companies and the younger generation, as well as transferring and attracting knowledge. Therefore, bilateral relations between the university and companies are very important. In my opinion, every company should, within the limits of its possibilities, work with young people, because this ensures the nation's further development, the collective wisdom of the population, and the continuity of society. In any organisation, much like a family, you should look after 'your own children' – that is, provide continuous learning not only for your employees but also for the fastest possible integration of young people into the work environment. In our company, many leading employees and specialists have received their education at LLU, and not only in the Faculty of Forestry. It is the cooperation between different specialisations that produces results, which in our case is birch plywood, which travels to many countries and almost all continents.
You can see the international market on the Latvijas Finieris website. The only part of the world missing is Antarctica. Speaking of maps and geography, I see you have a small company in Finland. The Finns are often cited in Latvia as a model for forestry and related industries.
In Finland, we have a relatively small factory that specialises in processing high-value Finnish birch timber into semi-finished products—veneers—and supplying them to the group's large plywood production plants in Latvia and Estonia. Finland is a country rich in timber resources, with highly developed forestry, its own traditions, and process management. Working there gives us the opportunity to jointly refine our product development processes, because Finland is one of the world leaders in terms of forestry and wood processing products and services. At the same time, our countries have much in common. In Latvia, forestry and wood processing combined account for about 20% of export revenue, and it is similar in Finland – both sectors, together with the paper industry, provide 1/5 of the country's exports. Thus, although Finland's overall level of prosperity is significantly higher, land use remains one of the backbones of the country. I believe that in the near future, the share of the sector in the countries' exports will not change significantly in either Finland or Latvia, and therefore we can learn a great deal from the Finns about how to increase our prosperity by making processes more efficient and productive throughout the entire forest sector value chain.
Talking to forest owners, one also hears that industry representatives in Latvia and Finland can learn from each other; both countries have deep forestry traditions. What are the main differences, including in manufacturing, in addition to the legislative nuances already known?
We should start at the first level – land use. There are quite a few territories in the world with fertile soil where timber can be grown very quickly – much faster than in the Nordic countries. Consequently, the forestry sector in both Latvia and Finland must think about competitiveness on a global scale. Recently, there have been many discussions in the Latvian forest sector, which have resulted in a set goal – to increase forest productivity by 25% by 2050. How? By changing processes and operations, and increasing productivity, if society agrees to it. The next level is industry, which also has the potential to develop, and in this period (until 2050) to double the value-added of products. We can become more technologically intensive – that is automation, we can create more complex products – wood construction must definitely be developed – and we must not forget the chemical industry! In Latvia, for various reasons, it has been neglected, but I am convinced that its potential will increase significantly in the future – chemical wood processing is one of the foundations of the bioeconomy. If countries and their societies decide to reduce the use of fossil or oil-based products, shifting to products obtained from land use – forestry and agriculture – the forest sector is given great opportunities! I would even say it is our duty! We must act actively, perhaps start with something small, initially creating small product manufacturing flows that are less technologically intensive.
We at Latvijas Finieris are also taking steps in this direction. In the resins used for gluing plywood, we are gradually replacing traditional, fossil-based components with products of biological origin. To produce 1 m3 of plywood, 100 kg of resin is needed. We have achieved a result where 40% of the phenol in them can be replaced with lignin – in essence, wood is being glued with wood. This is one of the most significant achievements in the global plywood industry in recent times. Research into betulin production opportunities also continues; we are currently creating the technological base for carrying out larger-scale industrial research.
The word 'chemistry' has recently been spoken with a negative connotation, thinking of something unnatural, harmful, and poisonous… How can such perceptions be changed?
We can change perceptions with a strong education system based on exact subjects, where motivated specialists in various fields work! What is chemistry? It is the science of the 'building blocks' that make up all living and non-living nature. Of course, any production that changes the original arrangement of these 'building blocks' leaves some impact on the surrounding environment. The questions are – how large is this impact and how can it be reduced? The production of wood products is less energy-intensive, and this process does not create chemical compounds that are long-lasting in their degradation. Chemical wood processing technologies are constantly evolving, risks are becoming smaller, and the impact on the environment is decreasing.
If society believes and agrees that we must reduce the human-induced impact on climate change, and that we must transition from fossil to sustainably obtained biological resources, the bioeconomy can provide that! However, it is society that sets the norms and rules, giving the manufacturer the opportunity to work!
In Latvia, there are even prejudices against wooden buildings…
Products change over the years, and so does the understanding of their use. I agree that at one point as a society, we had moved away in our thinking from using wood in construction. As beings, humans are inclined towards the new. If new products emerged in the past, it was not difficult to convince society that they should be tried! The return to wood is likely determined by the story of removing fossil products from circulation, the increasing relevance of renewable resources, and the possibility of processing wood with sufficiently low energy intensity. Undoubtedly, there is also the understanding and desire to live ever more healthily, where wood as a building material and interior element has a great many advantages.
In my opinion, the main thing again is whether society accepts wooden buildings, whether society likes them, and whether construction from wood is perceived more broadly from the point of view of design, energy, and CO2 footprint, while also calculating it over its entire life cycle. Looking at it this way, wooden structures are already very competitive today. As oil products become more expensive and society's desire to use renewable materials grows, competitiveness will only increase.
If we talk about fire safety and fire resistance, which is usually the main issue in connection with the use of wood, buildings with metal or other structures do not always 'endure' potential accidents any better. At Latvijas Finieris, we have been building new production facilities for 15 years, mostly using wooden structures. Our experience shows that in the event of a fire, metal structures are not actually that resilient, and the disaster can eventually turn out even worse than if the building had been made of wood.
Latvijas Finieris is also a forest owner. These are not just birch forests, not just birch stands?
When getting involved in forest management, Latvijas Finieris had a strategic aim – to understand and develop birch forestry and make it more familiar to both society and professionals. We own a little over 9,000 hectares of forest, of which 2,000 hectares are plantations. The rest are mixed-type forests typical of Latvia, whereas we develop plantations as model areas where we can invite other forest owners to look at what results can be achieved with breeding and proper maintenance. Over more than 20 years, a great deal of work has been done. We have cooperated with and involved scientists, students, and many companies in the sector. Here, we must thank the Silava forest science institute, the State Forest Service, LLU, Latvijas Valsts meži, and everyone and anyone who has participated in this process. Scientists follow the growth of plantations, monitor methods and processes, supplement and describe them so that the resulting knowledge base is of high quality and can be shared. In the plantations, we look for the right solutions – how much to plant, how often to tend and thin, to obtain the maximum timber stock. Practice and science work and are located together. As a result, together with a broader vision, we can look at what we can do to grow timber on one hectare of land faster, in greater quantity, and with higher quality.
In the Faculty of Forestry in the 90s, the felling age for birch in silviculture theory was 71-80 years…
The question is broad. In essence, forestry is a link in a unified value-added chain that produces resources for the wood processing industry. A supply-demand principle operates in mutual relationships. Therefore, when thinking about which direction forestry should develop in, one must look at how wood processing has developed. In the past, people carried, hauled, and pushed using their physical strength; they worked slowly, with little or no mechanisation, simple technologies, and a high percentage of waste. The thicker the log that was processed in one go, the less effort was required to obtain the necessary volume of materials. Gradually, people have become technology supervisors and process managers. If once the development of technology was determined by the possibilities of human vision and reaction, now processes are carried out by cameras, scanners, and microchips. In the timber industry, the speed of production and related processes has increased significantly. Consequently, production equipment has become larger and more durable, but accordingly – also more metal-intensive and expensive. At present, the further increase in process speed and, with it, the development of industry is limited by two circumstances – the physical limit of how fast we can move materials, and data processing capabilities. If the latter is constantly evolving, moving heavy materials at some point becomes disproportionately expensive – lifting large-diameter roundwood is difficult. By working with thinner trees, equipment can be less large and less material-intensive. Therefore, the timber industry today is moving in the direction of using the thinnest possible diameter of trees. Moreover, by improving gluing technologies, we can obtain large load-bearing structures from smaller-sized materials with better properties and durability indicators than solid wood. As a result, wood processing companies today prefer thinner trees. If we want to rationally manage our land, maintain global competitiveness throughout the value chain, and as a society approach the level of prosperity of the Nordic countries, forestry must adapt!
(The interview uses photographs by Timurs Subhankulovs and zemeunvalsts.lv)