The Ministry of Industry and Trade proposed to limit the export of wood and chipboard (chipboard) and include them in the list of goods important for the domestic Russian market. The corresponding document has been posted on the federal legal portal of draft regulatory legal acts, RBC reports.
It is assumed that the restrictions will also apply to wood in the form of chips or softwood shavings. As explained in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the supply is due to a significant increase in particleboard exports and a decrease in their share in the domestic market. This situation negatively affects the furniture industry where this type of product is used.
Increased demand for furniture has been observed since September last year and is associated with the forced downtime of production in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the authors of the document note. As a result, furniture production increases the consumption of chipboard, and there is a shortage of the product on the domestic market. At the same time, the production of particle board decreased by 1.5 percent compared to 2019, while exports increased by 15.8 percent.