Foreigners make massive investments in Romanian forests

Austrian group Holzindustrie Schweighofer and Finland's Tornator have so far invested 50 million euros in forest acquisition. Forest exploitation is not allowed to exceed the growth rate of that forest, of around 5 cubic metres per hectare per year for deciduous forests and of around 7 cubic metres per hectare per year for spruce forests. According to market information, acquisitions made by foreign investors on the Romanian market exceeded 50,000 hectares, i.e. 150,000 million euros at an average price of 3,000 euros per hectare. Buyers of forests in Romania include Harvard Management Company, the investment fund that belongs to Harvard University. The fund has acquired over 30,000 hectares, according to the quoted sources. Other purchases were made by Swedish investors (4,000 hectares) and by the Porsche family (8,000 hectares). These investors had not made any comment by the time this issue was ready for print.