Core logging operations consist of timber preparation, extraction, accounting, quality control, and storage activities. To ensure these tasks are carried out to the highest possible standard, the way timber is measured and recorded is of great importance. The significance of these processes is explained to Apollo.lv by Mārtiņš Gaigals, Deputy Chairman of the Board of SIA VMF LATVIA and SIA Koksnes plūsmas datu centrs, and Arnis Muižnieks, Chairman of the Board of the Forest Owners Association of Latvia.

The historical development of timber measurement

When asked about the historical evolution of timber measurement and accounting, Mārtiņš Gaigals says: “This sector has developed alongside timber processing and transport, because, naturally, timber measurement became relevant as soon as timber started to be traded. And that happened a century or a century and a half ago. Essentially, trade took place on the banks of rivers. That is where the evaluation of timber volume and quality occurred.”

It was the people from the processing plants who would travel upriver and manage the floating, measuring, and reaching of agreements. If you take away the historical digression, it is worth looking at timber measurement in the context of market development in Latvia, from the moment we regained our independence, because that is when the market economy began.”