THE ROLE OF FOREST RESOURCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHEASTERN SERBIA: MARKET ANALYSIS AND PERSPECTIVES

The global wood trade is important for the world economy and significantly impacts the construction, paper, and bioenergy industries. Growing demand comes from industrialized countries and developing economies, which invest in urbanization and infrastructure development. As a large consumer and wood exporter, Europe is influenced by climate change, geopolitics, and energy crises. On the other hand, Serbia has a long tradition in wood export, but at the same time faces challenges in modernization and sustainable forest management. In such circumstances, this research aims to analyze the market trends in wood assortments in the Southeastern Forest Area of Serbia in the period 2008-2017. The purpose of the research is to identify the main trends in the field of logging, processing, and sales of wood assortments in the analyzed area. The subject of the research includes state forests, Public Enterprise (PE) "Srbijašume", forest estates in the Southeastern Forest Area, the volume of logging, production, and sales of wood assortments, as well as their price. The data were collected from the databases of the PE "Srbijašume" and included annual sales and prices of beech, oak, and poplar, which were adjusted according to annual price indices to calculate their real prices. The methods used in the analysis include descriptive statistics, the Mann-Kendall test for trend detection, and autocorrelation of time series. The results indicate a statistically significant increase in the volume of felling, sales, average prices, and gross revenues during the analyzed period. Beech and oak dominate the sales, reflecting their importance in the regional forest inventory. This data confirms the steady growth of the wood industry sector in the South East region and underlines the importance of responsible resource management and adaptability to market dynamics.