Slovenia will also allocate funds from the recovery and resilience plan for investments in the wood processing industry. A start-up of investments for a total of 85 million euros is expected. It is one of the largest investment cycles in the wood processing industry.
With 37 million euros of state funds from the public tender for investments in wood processing companies, according to the Minister of Economy, Tourism and Sport, Matjaž Han supported 62 investments and thereby encouraged an increase in the productivity and capacity of Slovenian wood processing companies, strengthened the production of wooden products and ensured the growth of added value.
As he noted, the Slovenian wood industry has been experiencing an upswing in recent years, which pleases him. Today, the industry’s revenues are 60 percent higher than in 2010, and the added value per employee increased by more than 96 percent to 42,363 euros. “I believe that with all the government’s activities in this area, the added value will continue to increase,” he said.
“We don’t have oil and gas, but we have a forest that we have to use wisely”
The Ministry of Economy estimates that there is still great potential for further development of the industry. Han reminded that Slovenia is the third most forested country in Europe and said: “We have neither oil nor gas, but we have a forest that we must use in a smart, systematic way.”
From the plan for recovery and resilience, 28 million euros will be provided to support investments in the wood processing industry, the remaining nine million euros will be contributed by the climate change fund. Minister of Environment, Climate and Energy Bojan Kumer called the signing of the contracts an important contribution to the revitalization of the economy and an important step towards accelerating the transition to a climate-neutral society.
He mentioned the strategic documents adopted in recent years – the comprehensive national energy climate plan and the resolution on Slovenia’s long-term climate strategy until 2050. Both documents state the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as an important goal and predict that Slovenia will establish the conditions for the exploitation of a wide range of renewable energy sources , including, of course, wood biomass energy, he added.
According to Han, the future of the wood industry is guaranteed if we have enough properly trained personnel. The vice dean for woodworking at the Faculty of Biotechnology agreed with this Max Merela. “The acquisition of competences and knowledge necessary for personnel in the woodworking industry is offered by our study programs at the Department of Woodworking,” he said, saying that they are the only educational institution that offers studies in the field of woodworking at all three levels – bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral.
The company Solis Timber from Straža pri Novem mesto was mentioned at the signing of the contracts as an example of good practice of a wood processing company that will receive the mentioned development funds. His director Kaja Zoran Ledinek she said that they applied for the tender with the desire for even greater and faster development of the company, products and maintaining competitiveness by adding even more added value to existing products.
They have a new investment cycle ahead of them and by 2025 they plan to set up an automatic sorting planing line and a line for longitudinal joining of wooden elements. This will give them greater production capacity, even greater product quality, and a fully digitized and automated production process. Due to the planned investments, the current slightly more than 30 employees will be joined by ten new ones in more demanding jobs, they will strengthen sales in existing markets and expand to new markets, she added.
Source: Rtvslo
