Wood pellets worth $1.4m sold to EU in one trading session at Belarusian commodity exchange
MINSK, 12 October (BelTA) – Wood fuel pellets worth $1.4 million have been sold to the European Union via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE), BelTA learned from BUCE.
“The exchange hosted the largest export trading session in wood pellets this year. Six transactions were made during the session for a total amount of $1.4 million. The buyers were companies from Denmark, Lithuania and Poland,” the press service said.
BUCE noted that although pellets have been sold on the Belarusian commodity exchange since the spring of last year, until now transactions were irregular and quite small. “The sudden surge of interest of European buyers in Belarusian pellets is primarily due to the beginning of the heating season, and given the record high prices for natural gas, the demand has skyrocketed. In January-September of this year, we already exceeded the export sales for the entire 2020. the recent trading session featured a large Danish supplier of biofuels to the European Union. Its made purchased pellets for the first time since 2019. Since Denmark is one of the world’s leaders in green energy. We we expect the volume of supplies of Belarusian pellets to this market will be growing,” the press service of the exchange commented.
It is assumed that the growing sales of wood pellets via the stock exchange will also stimulate the enterprises affiliated with the Forestry Ministry to manufacture products with higher added value. For example last year domestic manufacturers exported woodchips in large amounts. Now they are mainly processed domestically and are also used as raw materials to manufacture pellets.
“Over the years a pool of regular buyers of woodchips has already formed at the stock exchange. These are mainly companies from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia. As woodchip exports are reducing, these countries are likely to become the major markets for domestic pellets. The timber market is very dynamic and, as a rule, quickly adapts to new trends,” the BUCE press service noted.
