Woodworking industry in Russia: analysis of the industry structure and development prospects

The state of the woodworking industry sectoral structure in Russia has been considered. The main sources for the present study were regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation, statistical data of the Federal Forestry Agency, Federal State Statistics Service, international analytical reviews, and scientific articles. Statistical methods of comparison and analytical processing of information were used as research methods. The purpose of the study is to analyze the industry structure, as well as to identify development prospects. The number of firms in the industry and production of the main types of woodworking products in dynamics have been analyzed. The export of goods from various branches of the wood industry in the country and the index of physical volume of investment in fixed capital in the industry under consideration have been studied. The issue of waste utilization in wood processing industries due to low utilization of waste wood has been separately highlighted, and the importance of reasonable use of forest resources has been emphasized. The author concludes that, in general, the real contribution of the woodworking industry to the country’s economic development is still lagging behind the potential, but the main prospects for overcoming this condition have been highlighted, such as exports development, transportation costs reduction, state support strengthening in the industry, and improvement of waste disposal in woodworking industries.