UN Log Production Data
Industrial Roundwood
Each year, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publishes production and trade data for a variety of forest products. Here we look at logs, or Industrial Roundwood. Industrial roundwood is a subset of the FAO’s Roundwood category. The other piece of Roundwood is Nonindustrial Roundwood, which is wood used for residential heating and cooking. This non-industrial use has historically accounted for about half of all wood harvested.
Figure 1 shows Industrial Roundwood (log) production since 1999. The chart breaks out the countries/regions that were the top seven producers in 2018. Why seven? These seven produced over 75 percent of the world’s logs in 2018. The next three countries on the list are Sweden(8), Finland(9) and Germany(10), which are already included under the European Union.
The EU passed the US as the largest log producer in 2016.
Figure 1. FAO Log Production Data (mm tons)
Source: UN FAO
