Slovenia is one of the most forested countries in Europe. According to Eurostat data, forests cover as much as 58% of our territory, making us – right after Finland and Sweden – among the most densely forested countries in the European Union. This represents an exceptional natural capital: forests act as a carbon sink, a reservoir of biodiversity, a recreational space, a source of quality wood and part of the cultural landscape that shapes Slovenian identity.
Although we have an abundance of wood, a large portion of raw material still leaves the country in the form of roundwood, while higher added-value products (such as panels, construction elements, furniture and building products) are often manufactured elsewhere. The reasons lie in fragmented ownership, insufficient consolidation of supply chains, lack of modern processing capacities and skilled labor and underutilized development and export opportunities – issues that experts, industry and the government have been highlighting for over a decade.
From Numbers to Reality: How Forested is Slovenia?
Slovenia has about 1.2 million hectares of forest (approximately 0.6 hectares per capita), which represents nearly 60% of the country’s surface area. The European Union average is around 39%, so it is often said that Slovenia has “about 20% more” forest than the average EU member. The timber stock and the average tree diameter are increasing in the long term, which strengthens the potential for quality assortments – but sustainable use requires balanced harvesting.
According to the Slovenian Forestry Institute and the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, harvesting in 2023 was approximately 4.3 million cubic meters, representing about 60% of the planned allowable cut. A significant part of this was sanitary logging related to bark beetle damage and other harmful factors. In years of bark beetle outbreaks, sanitary harvesting can quickly increase, as has been experienced several times over the past decade.
Ownership structure strongly affects utilization. Slightly over 75% of Slovenian forests are privately owned, divided among more than 400,000 owners. The average property is small and fragmented, complicating professional management, joint harvesting, assortment consolidation and marketing.
From Log to Product: Industry Structure at Home and in the EU
The wood-processing value chain is a key part of the forest-wood sector and includes various stages through which wood passes from raw material to final product. The value of wood increases with each processing step – the strategic document From Log to Product emphasizes that differences can amount to several hundred euros per cubic meter when wood is processed from logs into semi-finished or high value-added products.
The main stages of the chain include:
- Primary processing – sawmilling, veneer production, wood-processing centers.
- Further mechanical and chemical processing – panel production, glued elements, impregnation, composite materials.
- Construction systems – structural beams, CLT panels, wooden formwork.
- Packaging and transport solutions – pallets, crates.
- Furniture industry and interior fittings – higher value-added products for homes and commercial spaces.
At the EU level, the furniture industry is traditionally one of the largest users of wood materials, followed by construction elements, panels, pulp and paper segments and packaging. The importance of each segment varies by country. Current Eurostat data show that forestry and logging generate only a portion of added value; most value is created further down the chain in processing, manufacturing and final products.
From an employment perspective, the broader forest-wood sector in the EU is a significant part of the bioeconomy. Eurostat and European data portals report over 3.5 million jobs in the extended set of activities (forestry, sawmilling, paper, furniture, parts of chemical and composite industries), with employment slightly increasing between 2012 and 2022 despite regional differences.
From Parliamentary Initiatives (2010) to Slovenian Wood Industry Day (2020)
As early as May 2010, three committees of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia (Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Committee on Environment and Spatial Planning, Committee on Economy) proposed to the government to establish more coordinated forest management policies. Key recommendations included:
- Encouraging the consolidation of fragmented forest properties into larger estates.
- Support schemes for joint management.
- Considering the establishment of a specialized agency for the forest-wood sector to coordinate the entire chain from growth to industrial use.
During the same period, experts emphasized the strategic importance of wood. In the publication Wood in Modern Slovenian Architecture (2010), Prof. Dr. Roko Žarnić pointed out that wood is a nationally important raw material whose potential in domestic processing remains underutilized. Measures suggested included strengthening education and architectural-promotion practices to encourage the use of domestic wood in construction.
These calls did not remain only on paper. On November 11, 2020, the first Slovenian Wood Industry Day was held, co-organized by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and SPIRIT Slovenia. Minister Zdravko Počivalšek highlighted the exceptional developmental potential of the wood sector in terms of environmental and economic impacts, self-sufficiency and broader social importance, supporting the use of domestic wood.
Strategy 2030: What the Forestry Directorate Says
In the last decade, the government established a dedicated Forestry Directorate, which coordinates incentives for competitiveness, strengthening value chains, internationalization, workforce development and wood use promotion. The From Log to Product program and industrial strategies emphasize the transition from raw material export to domestic processing with higher added value, with the government co-financing technological upgrades, new product development and group and individual company participation at foreign fairs.
Key strategic goals by 2030:
- Process approximately 3 million cubic meters of Slovenian wood domestically per year.
- Achieve approximately €2.5 billion in revenue in the wood sector.
- Employ at least 15,000 people in the broader wood/furniture sector.
- Increase the share of wood in public buildings (target values of 30% and above).
- Establish and/or strengthen wood-processing centers – state-supported investments totaling over €140 million to enhance regional added value.
Key Challenges Along the Way
To achieve these goals, we must confront several persistent systemic obstacles:
- Fragmented forest ownership: hundreds of thousands of owners, small parcels, logistical and organizational barriers to professional harvesting and assortment consolidation.
- Underutilized allowable cut: actual harvesting chronically lags behind plans, partly due to accessibility, partly due to labor shortages and market organization.
- Export of roundwood, import of products: lost added value and jobs; the state promotes domestic processing through programs.
- Workforce and technical competencies: shortage of trained workers and modern-equipped facilities; investments in technology and education are needed.
- Forest health: bark beetles, weather disasters and crown dieback increase sanitary logging shares, requiring rapid intervention.
What Can We Do – Companies, State and Us
Sustainable development of the forest-wood value chain requires coordinated actions by all stakeholders – companies, the state and us as consumers. The following measures can increase competitiveness, create new jobs and encourage the use of domestic wood:
- Cooperation and cooperative management: local cooperatives or contractual consortia of owners can reduce harvesting costs, increase volumes and improve bargaining power in sales.
- Technological upgrades and processing centers: leverage state incentives for sawmills, drying kilns, CLT lines, veneer factories; regional centers create jobs in the country’s interior.
- Internationalization and joint trade fair appearances: the small domestic market demands proactive export; the Directorate co-finances group and individual company participation abroad.
- Consumer awareness and public procurement: choose products made from certified Slovenian wood; the state should require sustainable wooden solutions and origin traceability in public projects.
Forests as a Development Compass: From Words to Actions
More than fifteen years after the first warnings from politics and experts, the key messages remain: we have wood but process too little domestically. The good news is that institutional support is strengthening: from parliamentary initiatives in 2010, through strategic documents, to the establishment of the Directorate and regular Slovenian Wood Industry Days connecting government, experts and companies. This platform enables moving from discussion to implementation – regional investments, modern technologies and a greater role for wood in construction and everyday products.
As the company Bauta d.o.o., we see an opportunity for Slovenia to gradually replace raw material exports with the export of knowledge and products. Let us support cooperation among forest owners, sawmills, architects, structural engineers and designers. Let us include wood in public and private projects. Let us invest in skilled personnel because without them, progress is impossible.
Let us recognize that wood is not just a material. It is a story about local value, circular economy and a future that smells like the forest.
