Big in the Baltics
With an abundance of raw materials and easy access to export markets, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are major league players in wood pellet production.

By Peter Taberner | October 31, 2011

In this not-so-talked-about part of Northeast Europe, the Baltic states—Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania—almost secretly possess a successful and burgeoning wood pellet industry, exporting to many major European pellet markets.

“The ever-growing level of production capacity in the Baltic region was the key reason we decided at Argus to put together our weekly fob (free on board) Baltic index for spot deals,” says Brodie Govan, editor of Argus Biomass Markets. “The Baltics have become one of the major supply hubs in the wood pellet sector, along with Portugal in Europe and the West Coast of Canada and Southeast U.S. The region has long been considered a reliable exporter to end-users in Scandinavia but that reputation is changing as more buyers from mainland Europe sign up for supply deals.”

Brodie estimates the Baltic’s current wood pellet production capacity at about 1.3 million metric tons per year. Latvia leads the way with 800,000 metric tons per year, Estonia at 450,000 metric tons and Lithuania at 120,000.

Read more:
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/5909/big-in-the-baltics/