Wood exports grew 32.2% in January-October, but still below the pre-pandemic level

Peruvian wood exports between January and October of this year totaled US $ 97 million 681,000, an amount 32.2% higher than the same period in 2020, reported the Association of Exporters (Adex).

According to figures from the commercial intelligence system ADEX Data Trade, the result from January to October of this year, still does not exceed the amount of the similar period of 2019, which registered 101 million 619,000 dollars.

“Peru is a megadiverse country, with a very promising future and Amazon forests that offer many opportunities that could add to the country’s recovery, if deforestation is fought and concessions are promoted,” said Erik Fischer, president of Adex.

He added that 61% of the Amazonian territory will not include 1% of the more than US $ 55,000 million estimated to reach Peruvian exports this year, a figure that will be a historical record.

From January to October, exports from the forestry sector only represented 0.2% of total shipments abroad.

He said that the deforestation of the Amazon is caused by extreme poverty and social exclusion that causes the burning of forests to maintain survival crops in territories without agricultural aptitude.

In this sense, he highlighted the importance of primary forest concessions which, in his opinion, proved to be a conservation tool. “The paradigm of how to face development and sustainability must be changed, thinking about sustainable forest management as a conservation tool,” he said.

He said that both the plantations and the concessions constitute a unit that demands an institutional framework that understands them and helps to generate a sustainable, socially inclusive and environmentally respectable business climate.

“Today there are certified concessions, very well preserved, at levels as good as those of a protected natural area; This paradigm shift implies understanding the good that we have done, and getting it done is a primary task ”, he emphasized.