The election and validation of the new President of Romania pave the way for the reconfiguration of a new parliamentary majority and the formation of a new Government. It is a turning point, with a delicate situation for the national economy. We discover the costs and the bill of an unsustainable growth, based on the stimulation of consumption, on loans, with the decrease of domestic industrial production and the increase of imports.
A new development paradigm is needed, based on supporting domestic production through efficiency and competitiveness, on efficient institutions, on eliminating unnecessary administrative costs.
With a share of 3.5% in Romania’s GDP and 150,000 jobs created, with exports of over 3.5 billion Euro and net foreign exchange contribution to Romania’s trade balance of over 2 billion Euro, with direct, indirect and induced contributions to Romania’s budget of 3 billion Euro annually according to a PwC report based on 2022 data, wood-based industries can be a pillar of sustainable development.
What is the situation today in the woodworking industry?
Evolution of industrial production
As of 2023, wood-based industries have been affected by a disastrous set of public policies, which have induced an artificial crisis in the sector.
Industrial production indices in the woodworking industry show a decrease in industrial production in 2023 to only 80.3%, compared to 2022 production. Keeping the year 2022 as a reference, production in 2024 represented only 88%. In 2025, in the first quarter, production is only 94.7% compared to the first quarter of 2024. The downward trend in the woodworking industry continues.
According to balance sheet data submitted by 5,531 companies in the wood industry, their cumulative financial losses in 2024 amount to 635,707,553 lei – over 120 million Euro – the average number of employees also reducing by 4,665 employees in 2024 compared to 2023.
The data show a worrying trend: a decrease in industrial production in 2023 and 2024 – which continues in the first quarter of 2025 – thousands of jobs lost, decapitalization of companies in the wood industry.
Activity in forestry
According to a press release of the National Institute of Statistics on forestry activity in 2024:
- The area of forests increased by 1,263 hectares, to 6.61 million hectares, mainly by including forested pastures and forested land in the forest fund. A slight but steady increase.
- The harvested volume decreased by 531,000 cubic meters, to 18.64 million cubic meters. We harvest less and less wood.
- The regenerated area decreased to 25,579 hectares. Fewer and fewer regenerated surfaces.
Data from the National Forest Inventory show that we harvest around 33% of the gross forest growth, the lowest percentage in Europe, with a net, unharvested accumulation of timber mass in forests of over 24 million cubic meters annually.
A recent analysis shows the disaster caused in the Apuseni Mountains by the Forestry Code and the entire environmental legislative palette, by the situation created by not allowing the wood affected by the bark beetle to be extracted from the forest urgently and imperatively. If in 2021 we had 15,000 infested cubic meters affected, in 2022 it reached 45,000 cubic meters, in 2023 it reached 150,000 cubic meters, in 2024 it reached 238,000 cubic meters, and in 2025, at present, 300,000 cubic meters of dry trees in the integral protection area of the Apuseni National Park. Extrapolate these developments to the national level and you will understand the extent of the effects.
The data show a paradoxical situation: the area of forests is growing, but we are harvesting less and less wood. Less wood from forestry treatments, forest regeneration works, more wood from forests affected by drying, pests, wind blowing. A breakdown forestry, due to the multiple blockages induced by overregulation, which block the application of forest management. A forestry in which we capitalize very little of the renewable resource that the forest offers us, a resource that degrades through non-intervention.
Illegal logging
The European Commission has classified Romania in the low risk category in the methodology of the new Forest Degradation Prevention Regulation (EUDR).
The risk classification is a dynamic one and is an objective assessment based on the indicators assumed in the Regulation, respectively
- Evolution of forest areas;
- Degree of forest governance;
- Transparency of land use data;
- Official data from FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA).
It is an external, official certification of Romania’s positive developments in this direction.
The sector’s priorities at the moment are:
- The reorganization of the National Forest Authority – Romsilva, with the aim of making the activity more efficient, supported by a simplification of regulations, with a vision oriented towards the superior valorization of the wood resource.
- Correction of the inapplicable provisions of the Forestry Code, which generate blockages:
- the elimination of the obligation to have forest management only every 20 years – a non-functional measure, which must be adapted to reality. A flexible system of pre-counting of by-products from the possibility, adapted to the reality of the impact of forests by climate change, allowing the urgent and imperative extraction of trees affected by drying, felling by wind and pests from the forest.
- the elimination of the ban on clear-cutting in the Natura 2000 Network – a provision that blocks the application of these treatments and the efficient regeneration of softwood forests on almost half of the national forest fund and has the effect of artificially reducing the availability of softwood by up to 400,000 cubic meters annually.
- the introduction of fluent and applicable environmental assessment procedures, unified with the procedure for the development of forest management.
- Clear option for capitalizing on the wood either on the foot or in shaped form.
Where the transition to the marketing of cut-to-shape wood is chosen, there is a eed for:
- Organisational separation of forestry administration, exploitation, transport and recovery.
- A new specific regulation for the valorization of shaped wood.
- Traceability and certification of legal origin at first placing on the market, by:
- Simplification of the legislative framework and elimination of overregulation on the processing and circulation chain of timber.
The real opportunities of the sector are solutions for a green and sustainable economy:
- National programme for the use of wood in construction, through coherent green procurement policies.
- Recovery of waste from the wood industry – over 2 million cubic meters can be transformed into energy in cogeneration plants, contributing to the decarbonization of CETs and reducing energy costs (below 60 Euro/MWh).
- Using pellets for residential heating – instead of exporting 400,000 tons of pellets annually, we can keep 2 million MWh of green, comfortable and affordable thermal energy in the country.
It is time for a new vision, for a government that understands that the forest and the wood industry are part of the solution.
We are confidently awaiting the establishment of the new government and we are ready to actively contribute, with clear, constructive proposals anchored in the realities on the ground. Romania needs public policies that ensure the sustainable protection of forest resources and the development of a modern, efficient and responsible industry.
A return of activity in the wood industry at the level of 2022, a goal that can be achieved very quickly, would mean increasing exports by up to 1 billion Euro, thousands of jobs in rural areas, several hundred million Euro in revenues to the state budget. With an adequate development strategy, taking into account that currently only 8 million cubic meters of wood resources reach the industry, the potential is to double production, with the implicit social, economic and environmental benefits.