In a joint study, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Russian government forecast an increase in Russia's volume of felled logs and growth in its output of lumber, wood-based panels, pulp, and paper until 2030. In the best case, the production volumes are predicted to be more than double or treble those of 2010. As result of ongoing investment projects, production capacity in the sawmilling sector can be expected to rise by 3.5-4m m3 by 2016. This growth, however, is only the perpetuation of the development seen in the last 20 years. The authors of the study believe far greater investment than that announced so far is required to achieve these increases in output. In the woodworking sector, investment in existing and new facilities is thus to be raised from RUB32.37bn in 2010 to up to RUB52.58bn by 2015. Investment expenditure is to almost double at best by 2030. Investment in the forest industry is to be increased more than five-fold to RUB22.7bn to assure the supply of logs.
