Kazakhstan\u2019s forest industry is not developed as in some other countries due to various factors including arid climate in many regions and historical land use patterns. However, Kazakh republic used to produce wood pellet for 300 mln USD dollars and Kazakhstan was at 3rd place of wood producer after Russia and Ukraine before the collapse of the Soviet Union and ahead of Belarus.<\/span> Starting from those time Kazakhstan\u2019s cover is primarily concentrated in the northern parts of the country, particularly in regions like Pavlodar, North Kazakhstan and Akmolinskaya oblast.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the Agency of Statistics of Kazakhstan the total area of forests and other wooded lands (FOWL), or <\/span>“lands with forest cover” is around 13 million ha<\/span><\/b> or 5 % of the total area Kazakhstan. The government is the only and main owner mostly through the State Forest Fund. There is a legal framework for private ownership outside the State Forest Fund through development of private afforestation, plantation and creation of agroforestry plantations. The main principles of governmental policy have been reflected in <\/span>the Forest and Eco Codes<\/span><\/b>. The Forest Code was created and approved in 2003 with further changes\/updates in 2017. It\u2019s worth mentioning that the new development strategy of the Forest industry has been presented in <\/span>the National Strategy and Biodiversity plan in 2023.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are around <\/span>70 main players<\/span><\/b> in the commercial market located in the North and East of Kazakhstan<\/span>. <\/span>The growth of the timber market has grown <\/span>11-15 % on average annually<\/span><\/b> from 2013 to 2022 in the national currency. <\/span><\/b>The Stat agency reported that the market consumption in 2022 was estimated <\/span>to be around 534 million euro <\/span><\/b>in total<\/span>. <\/span>It is worth to point out<\/span> that the import from Russia was about 84% in 2022.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is essential to note Kazakhstan has not joined US and EU economic sanctions regime and continues to trade with Russia and other countries under normal legal circumstances. It means these sanctions impacting Russia may indirectly affect the trade with Central Asia. Therefore, it is prudent for companies engaging in business with this region to implement comprehensive KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance processes and thorough screening of all trading partners and end users.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Nowadays the local producers have been managing around <\/span>1,4 million ha<\/span><\/b> which is around <\/span>20%<\/span><\/b> of 7,2 million ha of the State Forest Fund which is appropriate for the Forest production. Despite the fact that the government has transferred a considerably sufficient share of land to the private sector the rate of the forestland development is still low around 13,6%. Such low rate is determined by lack of processing facilities and new and effective technologies. The national experts have estimated <\/span>2,0 million m3 <\/sup><\/span><\/b>as the additional potential <\/span><\/b>to the current one.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Climate change and weak forest management have been contributing to increasing risk to deforestation and for anthropogenic forest degradation due to fire and other natural and anthropogenic negative impacts. Lack of qualified personnel at the governmental and regional levels leads to absence of sustainable monitoring or oversight and sufficient forest management.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As it\u2019s mentioned above the Forest Industry is included in the National Strategy and Biodiversity plan where the following targets are highlighted:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In November 2023 there was Forest Forum with Finnish delegation in Astana initiated by the Kazakh government. During the forum, the discussions ranged from setting up <\/span>sustainable forest management and fire monitoring and prevention and to upgrading processing facilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the Kazakh Ministry stated during the Forum there are needs in a short term of period in the following areas:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n TF activities available for Finnish companies<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Team Finland network can support Finnish companies in the activities in Kazakhstan:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Altyn Shakirkhanova<\/strong>, Senior Business Advisor \/ Head of EastCham Branch in Kazakhstan altyn.shakirkhanova@eastcham.fi.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kazakhstan is implementing new technologies and modernizing processing facilities in the forest sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16647,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1664],"tags":[1697,1763,1654,1727,1762,1655],"class_list":["post-100026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications","tag-business-opportunity-en","tag-forest-sector","tag-kazakhstan","tag-kazakstan-en","tag-metsasektori-en","tag-team-finland-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChallenges and opportunities<\/h2>\n
Opportunities for Finnish companies\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n