The sector already represents 15% of exports and UPM 2 will reach its total production capacity, going from 2.7 million to 4.8 million tons of pulp.
He forestry sector It is heading to be the main export item for the country after this milestone was expected for last year. “The forestry sector is growing considerably, it represents 15% of total exports,” said the Forestry General Director of the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP), Carlos Faroppaabout.
With the start-up of the second plant of UPM in the country, the production and export capacity of cellulose grew considerably: from 2.7 million tons processed during 2022, this year it is expected to increase to 4.8 million tons.
The inauguration of the facilities in Bull Pass had already generated expectations that, in 2023, the forestry sector would dethrone forestry exports meat with pulp as the main product placed in international markets, in a year in which, furthermore, demand and prices were equally low. However, and due to the usual production curve at the beginning of operations, UPM 2 It will reach its maximum capacity only this year.
Therefore, it is expected that the sector will continue to experience considerable growth. In fact, today it already represents 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 15% of the total exports of the country, as Faroppa explained on Radio Carve. “He is going to become the main export sector because new industries are being added,” the leader said.
A 2024 with great expectations
The forestry sector is currently one of the three areas with the highest exports of Uruguay, along with meat and grains. In that sense, it is already responsible for almost one in every five dollars that the country sells abroad in the placement of goods. On the other hand, in area it already exceeds one million hectares of plantations, and also represents some 30,000 jobs associated directly and indirectly.
Based on this positive starting scenario, a significant growth for this year. “We are going to exceed 3,000 million in exports, which makes it very important, and what is coming is much more than that. It is not that it will grow a lot on the surface, although it will grow, but rather that it will be added worth”, Faroppa highlighted.
The Forestry General Director also highlighted that new solid wood and sawing plants will soon be inaugurated and expanded in the departments of Rivera, Tacuarembó, Thirty-three and Long Hill; which will imply an industrial investment of 400 million dollars for this year and 2025, accompanied by the creation of hundreds of jobs.
“The forestry sector came to decentralize. Montevideo and the conurbation area practically do not count in the forest world, but everything is towards the interior”, around which populated centers with a very important development are installed, the specialist pointed out, in turn.
Be at logistical and technological cutting edge It will be one of the challenges for this expanding sector. In this line, the development of the bioeconomy It is already something that is being worked on, from the replacement of plastics or textiles, as well as fossil energy. According to Faroppa, 7% of the energy generated to cover demand comes from waste. forest biomass.
Source: Ambito
