Tornator: Increasingly more forests are for sale, with prices down 20%

Finnish group Tornator, which paid several tens of millions of euros for the acquisition of 12,000 hectares of forest on the Romanian market, says this year the number of forests put up for sale has risen due to the economic crisis, and prices have fallen by 20-30%. "In 2008 the market was mainly dominated by mediators, while this year the number of contacts we have with direct owners is on the rise," said Zoltan Kosy, country manager of Tornator. Despite the rise in the number of forests put up for sale, the average size of properties is relatively small, so Tornator did not complete acquisitions in the first half of the year. Many of the plots have yet to be returned to their owners, while for others the quality of wood stands is "generally poor". "The price offered depends fully on the location, quality, existing infrastructure, expected expenditure and on revenues from the forest stand. The average market price varied between 2,800 and 3,600 euros per hectare in 2008," added the head of Tornator Romania.