Journal of Forest Economics

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Global trade in forest products has become unstable since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This study clarifies the market trends of roundwood and sawnwood in the temperate zone as well as roundwood and plywood in the tropical zone in the year 2020, in reference to the reports compiled by Japan’s Forestry Agency, UNECE/FAO, and ITTO. In 2020, UNECE countries reduced the volume of wood consumption overall, while North America showed an increase in production and consumption of softwood sawnwood, due to the growth of housing market and price hike in sawnwood. Europe also increased its production of softwood sawnwood derived from insect-damaged timber, most of which were destined to China. China dominates the global wood market with the shares of 46% in roundwood imports and 22% in sawnwood imports. In tropical countries, Indonesia and Malaysia reduced their volume of plywood production, while Vietnam substantially increased its production and exports of plywood. Russia prohibited its exports of roundwood in January 2022, while G7 nations imposed a series of trade sanctions including wood products against Russia, after Russia’s invasion into Ukraine in February 2022. Destabilization of international trade policies including sanctions against Russia may affect Japan’s wood imports.

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The issues in this paper are, first, the reality of the price increase in the Northern Tohoku region of Japan during the wood shock and, second, why the log supply was insufficient to meet the log prices that rose and increased demand during the wood shock. This paper first overviewed the characteristics of the forestry production and distribution structure in the Northern Tohoku region. Next, the movement of log and product prices under the wood shock on official Statistics was confirmed. Then, the analysis was based on national and prefectural data and interviews with forestry professionals. As a result, it was notable that the forestry productivity in the Northern Tohoku region, as revealed by the wood shock, was determined by the management strategies of the forestry enterprise. Their management strategies were, (1) allocation of forestry labor between the timber production business and the forestation business, (2) adjustment of the business ratio between the purchase of standing timber of private forests and the contracting business for national forests, (3) selection of business sites based on the quality and quantity of standing timber inventory, and (4) leveling of transaction costs, including psychological costs by using a large-scale log distribution company.

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