Forestry Council Report July 2020

Market Review 

• The Irish timber market appears to have escaped the impacts of COVID-19 to date, there has been no decline in demand and the market remains buoyant, with a strong demand for roundwood.
• The delays and shortages in felling licences and the resulting shortage in harvesting operations may have assisted in maintaining strong demand for roundwood.
• Timber markets Q2 2020 (April to June):

All prices (ex VAT) quoted roadside for conifers.

Product Type	Length	Diameter	Price € /tonne
	(m)	(cm)	(Roadside)
Pulp	3 m	< 7cm	28 – 32
Stakewood	1.6 m	> 8cm < 15 cm	40 -44
Palletwood	2.5 m	> 14 cm	46 – 50
	3.1 m		52 – 57
	3.4 m
	3.7 m		56 -60
Sawlog	4.9m	> 20cm	75 – 80
	5.5 m

• The following is the Forest Service May report:
  • 350ha of new forests were established, bringing the afforestation programme up to 1,233ha so far this year. This is a decrease of 27% on the area planted from this date last year.
  • €51,726,097 in forest premiums have been paid.
  • 43,248 linear metres of new forest road have been constructed, with a grant aid cost of €1,738,329. This is an increase of 15% in linear metre construction on this date last year.
  • 149 new felling licence issued in Mary bring the total licences issued to 714, this is a 76% decrease on the number of licences that issued in 2019.

Activity since last National Council

• The new Reconstitution & Underplanting Scheme (Ash Dieback) (RUS) was launched. The scheme supports (i) site clearance (in advance of reconstitution) or partial clearance (in advance of underplanting), (ii) reconstitution and (iii) underplanting.
  • The underplanting support is a new element to the scheme, which involves the partial replanting of the ash plantation following partial clearance. All GPCs are available to the farmer including agro-forestry.
  • The manage options available to farmers under the scheme are restricted as follows:

• The grant rates available to farmers are as follows:

• The committee will be lobbying the new Minister to include a compensation element in the ash dieback scheme; farmers who planted ash as a pension and have had their investment devastated must be compensated.

Any EU/COPA developments

• IFA participated in the webinar on The Role of Agriculture and Forestry in the EU Climate Law. Click here for an overview of the discussion.

Upcoming issues

• IFA to meet with Department to discuss their project plan for dealing with forestry licences backlog and other issues.
• Finalisation of Forestry Programme post 2020 submission, following feedback from the committee.
• Finalisation of Producer Organisation Scheme proposal.

Chairman	Vincent Nally
Executive	Geraldine O’Sullivan