Securing firewood for Slovak households should have priority over that intended for export. The Environment Ministry has proposed to control its export abroad, while foresters insist on processing the calamity. The demand for firewood is enormous and far exceeds the supply. Some people are buying up the stock because of fear of gas shortages, others for selfish reasons. According to Stanislav Janis, chairman of the Heat Producers Association, a large part of this commodity ends up abroad.
"The reality is that biomass and firewood is bought and exported from Slovakia, or trucks go abroad and buy Slovak wood," Janis explained for RTVS.
The Ministry of the Environment has also warned of excessive timber exports abroad. According to State Secretary Michal Kica, there is no control mechanism which would allow the real-time monitoring of the quantities and flows of timber exported abroad.
Only last year’s data are available and while these show that more timber was imported into Slovakia than exported, the Ministry says that a new variable came into play this year - the war in Ukraine. This will significantly limit, if not completely eliminate, the import of timber from Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian markets to Slovakia.
"If the government adopts a resolution on the general economic interest, it will define the numbers of wood and biomass that must remain in Slovakia so that people do not freeze to death in winter," says Stanislav Janis, chairman of the heat producers' union.
According to Andrej Wallner, spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as far as the regulation of timber exports is concerned, it is primarily hampered by European Union rules on the free movement of goods, services, capital and people between EU member states. While the Agriculture Ministry does not agree with restrictions on exports, the Environment Ministry is opposed to more massive processing of calamitous timber. The two ministries do not agree on how much of it is left in Slovak forests. The way out of the current situation thus depends on an inter-ministerial agreement.
Source: RTVS, Jozef Kubánek
