Investments in lesser-known Forestry Countries

On 1 October 2024, all business units under Hedeselskabet changed their name to Dalgas. This applies to HedeDanmark, HD 2412, HD NordicTrees, HD Silva, HD BioRec, HD Forest, HD Forest Germany, HD Seed, and HD LogSystems.

Upsides

• Increased land prices
• Increased timber prices
• Industrial development
• Liberalisation of Forest Act (felling age is based on diameter and age, rather than just age criteria)
• Etc.

Downsides - Risks

• Increased nature protection rules
• Climate change
• Russia
• Etc.

Margules Groome Consulting has published an article „Blue Oceans - Investment in lesser-known Foresty Countries“. This article brings out countries, which could be considered as forest investment countries and also countries, which are not suitable in terms of forest investment opportunities. Here we will make a short overview and bring out some key points from the article. Want to see full article by Margules Groome, click on the link above.

As can be expected, forest investments tend to be directed towards countries, where timber markets and forest industries are well-developed, and risks are perceived to be lower. For example, countries as Australia, Brazil, USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland etc. There are definitely countries, which are not attractive for the investors due to higher risks (climate, political, etc). But at the same time, there are also countries, that are less known, but have already established industries and infrastructure and just need more development. Margules Groome Consulting brought out countries, that might be in the pipeline for the future investments. They made an experiment and the countries, which were included, are seen in the article Table 1-1. Margules Groome developed business ranking for all countries and selected 34 countries. Ranking was based on 5 indicators:

1. The World Bank’s 2020 Ease of Doing Business Index
2. Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index
3. Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2022 Democracy Index
4. The United Nations 2021 Human Development Index
5. The 2021 Global Health Security Index

Based on the Margules Groome experiment, top 5 countries with the best climate and business rankings are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea. All those mentioned countries have small planted forest areas, but in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia there is space for expansion - if we talk about land available. In the European forest sector, these countries might be well-known, but lesser-known in the context of international forestry investment. The article, published by Margules Groome Consulting, is showing that forest investments in lesser-known countries should not be forgotten – the Baltic States are top ranking countries of forest investments.