Timber production and processing sectors in Ukraine are mainly in the shadows today, as there is a large difference between timber production in Ukraine and Poland that has the forest territory comparable with Ukraine's forest territory and similar climate, experts of state-run enterprise Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza have said.

According to a company press release on Tuesday, with total area covered with forests in Ukraine of almost 9.3 million ha, in 2015 timber production was 19.3 million cubic meters (mcm), while in Poland with forests on 9.44 million ha timber production was 40 mcm.

The experts said that the example of mismatch of official data and the real situation are the results of the calculations of the balance of veneer stock in Ukraine.

Official veneer production data from Ukraine's State Statistics Service for 2012-2015 are set too low being 387,000-431,000 cubic meters, while according to calculations of Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza, real veneer production in Ukraine is 428,000-501,000 cubic meters and this is 10-15% more than official data.

A large part of veneer stock is sold not at special auctions in violation of Ukrainian legislation. The share of veneer stock bought not at the auctions grew from 32% (137,000 cubic meters) to 46% (233,000 cubic meters) in 2012-2015.

Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza said that effective measures are to be drawn up to settle the situation.

One of the measures could be the realistic projected balance of timber in Ukraine.