Alarming situation for the timber industry. At the moment, professionals are worried about the shortage of oak trees in France. “We are seeing an increase, an explosion of purchases by Chinese brokers, that is to say companies that send people to buy French oaks”explains Samuel Deschaumes, CEO of Center Bois Massif, a company based in Saint-Pierre-les-Étieux (Cher).
“It’s something very serioushe believes, guest of France Bleu Berry this Monday, February 21. Currently, we have an increase in this volume which means that we will certainly reach 500,000 cubic meters this year, and which means that French sawmills and French processing companies, by extension, find themselves deprived of material..
The profession is sounding the alarm. If we don’t react, there will be sawmills that will disappear in France
“We are starting to feel strong shortages of certain productsadds the manager of this company, which employs 40 people and manufactures in particular oak parquet. We have suppliers today who are struggling to find material. We have a whole sector that risks being destabilized. If we don’t react, there will be sawmills that will disappear in France”.
“We’re starting to see some suppliers who tell us: ‘be careful, I’m going to have to deliver to you four, five, six weeks later’continues Samuel Deschaumes. And we can even have, on certain products, shortages which resemble what we have sometimes seen on other materials”.
An agreement signed between operators and processors
To deal with this emergency situation, the Ministry of Agriculture brought together representatives of the sector on Friday 18 February. An agreement has been signed for better cooperation between loggers and processors. “The idea of this agreement is to create better communication to promote this marketreacts Laurence de Gressot, the president of Fransylva Indre. The goal is to create added value on the market, with quality raw material: oak”.
“We hope this is the first step towards other agreements that could be made on other tree species”indicates the president of the association which brings together 350 loggers, owners of a total of 25,000 hectares of forest in the department.