the wood market | France

All the activities of the wood sector in France include a large number of actors, forestry activities (term defined by larousse.fr like" all techniques allowing the creation and rational exploitation of forests while ensuring their conservation and regeneration ") and from the production of raw wood to the finished products: pulp, furniture, carpentry, and others This study will focus on activities related to the production of raw wood and sawing and planing although it gives an overview of the different customer markets in this sector.

In a context of environmental awareness of citizens, the wood market in France is struggling to develop and suffers from fierce competition with other countries. Despite the good export performance of certain types of wood (in particular oak), sawmill operations are no longer progressing as well as the total volumes of raw wood harvests.

Yet, the surface area of forests in France is increasing every year for three decades now, and most customer markets, such as construction, carpentry and trading in wood and building materials, are still growing The selling prices of the different woods are increasing quite rapidly . In 2019, softwood lumber experienced the largest increase.

Silvicultural operators and sawmills can find support with proactive public policies promoting the use of wood, both in the energy and construction sectors. These European directives have been developing for several years now, and should eventually bear fruit and thus give a boost to the French sector.