In 2007, with the submission of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, support for woodworking enterprises began in Belarus.

A number of wood processing plants were allocated loans totaling more than 1 billion dollars.

The authorities had certain hopes for this branch.

On March 2, 2022, the European Union introduced sanctions against Belarusian wood and its products.

According to the sanctions, EU countries had until June 4 to fulfill all contracts with Belarusians and not to sign new ones.

Last year, Belarus earned 3.2 billion dollars from the supply of wood and wood processing products to EZ.

Let's see what happens to the sphere now.

"15% less money"

An employee of one of the state-owned companies dealing with wood told Svaboda how the sanctions affected his work.

"What used to be sold to Europe now goes to Russia and countries I have never even heard of.

Asia mainly.

There are also supplies to Iran.

There are no layoffs among the staff, we just work more, because supplies have become cheaper," says the interlocutor.

According to him, payments to employees have also decreased.

"Some surcharges have been cut, it is 15% less on average.

But this is not the case every month.

In one of the months it was 50% less, but that's because 4 shifts out of 15 were idle," he says.

Another interlocutor, who works at one of the wood processing factories in a small town, told Svaboda that "nothing has changed at the enterprise lately."

"The salary has remained the same, we earn between 900-1800 rubles.

Depends on the workshop.

This is a big salary for our city, so they hold on to the job.

The conditions remained the same.

The supply of products has become worse: the warehouses are full.

They mainly sell boards to the East;

where exactly, I don't know.

The shifts were not reduced at us, none of the employees were made redundant," says the interlocutor.

Another employee of a private company that was engaged in the supply of Belarusian wood and products from it to Europe says that "the business will generally collapse."

"They worked for Europe.

Netherlands recently.

Sawn wood of their own production was brought there.

The last delivery came from us in March.

They never received the money for it.

Explain officially, because we are under sanctions and the movement of money in our direction is prohibited.

It was unofficially explained that co-aggressors were not paid.

Other companies in that region are afraid to work with us.

We are winding up business in Belarus.

It's good if you don't have any debts," says the interlocutor.

What are the wages in woodworking

Let's see what salaries are offered at woodworking enterprises.

For example, according to the "Vitebskdreva" website, the enterprise has more than two dozen vacancies.

A bulldozer driver is offered 800 rubles per month.

This is half as much as the average salary in Belarus for October.

They are ready to pay 2,000 rubles to a driver of a logging machine, 700 rubles to a tractor driver, 1,000 to a forest feller, and 1,200 to a leading mechanical engineer.

There are 1.5 dozen vacancies at "Borysaudrev".

A driver is offered 1,200-1,300 rubles a month, a grinder 1,500-1,700 rubles, an engineer-technologist — 1,200 rubles, a craftsman — 1,500 rubles.

How businesses make money

"Mohilevdrev"

Last year's net profit was 305,000 rubles, for 2020 it was minus 1.5 million.

The plant has debts of 81 million in short-term and long-term loans, according to the reporting for 2021 (the documents are available in the editorial office).

"Rechitsadrev"

Last year's profit was 407,000 rubles, the previous year's profit was minus 1 million rubles.

Debts — 467 million rubles.

Mazyr DAC

Last year's profit was 2.5 million rubles.

For 2020 - minus 9 million.

Long-term loans — 243 million rubles.

"Bridge Tree"

Annual profit for 2021 - 75 thousand rubles, in 2020 - 1.6 million rubles.

The plant has loans for 308 million rubles.

"Borysaudrev"

The net losses of "Barysaudrev" last year were 125.7 million rubles, for 2020 - 10.1 million rubles, for 2019 the losses were 4.5 million rubles.

So, in three years the losses have increased almost 30 times.

There were also losses in 2018 (17.1 million rubles) and in 2017 (11.1 million rubles).

Thus, the plant has been operating at a loss for 5 years.

"Ivacevich tree"

"Ivacevichdrev" earned 2.5 million rubles last year, but the plant's debts (both long-term and short-term) amount to more than 231 million rubles.

This is 92 times the annual profit.

What about supplies now

During 8 months of this year, Belarusian wood and its products were bought in the EU for 638 million euros.

Moreover, since the beginning of the year, the volumes have decreased significantly - from 107 million in January to 443 thousand in August, which means a drop of 242 times.

This is precisely related to sanctions and suspension of contracts.

For example, Austria and Belgium completely stopped buying Belarusian wood and products from it until June.

Although as early as January 2022, Belgium bought wood from Belarus for 3 million euros.

In August, according to Eurostat, the following countries still bought Belarusian wood:

  • Germany - by 19 thousand euros;

  • Spain — by 530 euros;

  • France — by 121 thousand euros;

  • Lithuania - for 240 thousand euros;

  • Latvia — by 28 thousand euros;

  • Poland — for 33 thousand euros;

  • Portugal — by 51 euros.

Exports to the CIS countries from Belarus for 9 months of this year amounted to 18.1 billion dollars.

Last year for the same period — 18.3 billion dollars.

The main buyer of Belarusian goods in the CIS is Russia.

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SAFE

Sanctions against Belarus for supporting the Russian war in Ukraine

Alexander Lukashenko admitted that rockets were fired at Ukrainian territory from Belarus.

At the same time, Belarusian soldiers were not sent to Ukrainian territory.

In an interview with Svaboda, the US ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, stated that "Lukashenka's regime is an accomplice of Russia's current invasion of Ukraine, as it allowed Russia to launch an attack from Belarusian territory."

On February 26, Canada and the Council of the European Union announced sanctions against Russia and Belarus.

20 Belarusian officials and military personnel were included in the list.

15 legal entities and 8 individuals were included in the US sanctions list.

On February 28, the ambassadors of the European Union introduced visa sanctions against 22 Belarusian high-ranking officials.

The Moladachan factory "MabelLine" went idle, because the Swedish company IKEA closed its business in the country.

IKEA closely cooperated with a number of other manufacturers and factories, including state ones.

Among them is the state-owned "Minsk Furniture Center" from Molodechno, the Mogilev textile manufacturer "Magateks", the Minsk watch factory "Luch" and others.

In March, the European Union banned the export of woodworking products produced in or exported from Belarus.

The Ministry of Forestry stated that it was forced to send products from Europe to Asia.

Due to the difficulties of doing business in the region, Booking.com and Airbnb are not operating in the country.

The Danish transport and logistics company Maersk announced the cessation of cargo transportation to Belarus on March 4.

When leaving the Belarusian market, other companies with a similar profile — DHL and FedEx — reported.

On March 5, the Finnish company OLVI announced the start of winding down its business in Belarus, where the company owns Lidzkaye Piva.

The plant's 840 employees will receive their salaries for the time being, the shutdown of business will be gradual.

On March 6, the Republic of Korea imposed sanctions.

They introduced export control measures for Belarus, believing that it "significantly contributes to Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

Japan introduced sanctions on March 8.

Assets of individuals and legal entities that have come under the new restrictions are frozen.

Deliveries of dual-purpose goods to Belarus and exports to the Ministry of Defense of Belarus and "Integral" are prohibited.

The World Bank stopped all programs in Belarus.

The bank noted that it has not approved new loans to Belarus since 2020.

Restrictions affected the sports industry.

Belarusian national teams of various ages have been suspended from participating in international tournaments in hockey, handball and basketball.

The Belarusian national team was not allowed to participate in the 2022 Paralympic Games.

The rating agency Fitch, taking into account the sanctions, lowered the long-term sovereign credit rating of Belarus to CCC, which means a real possibility of default.

The American financial company American Express has suspended the provision of services in the country.

No operations are now possible on her cards.

On March 9, the European Union approved the disconnection of three Belarusian banks from SWIFT.

These are Belagroprombank, Dobrabyt Bank and Development Bank.

On April 16, a complete ban on the crossing of the border with the European Union by cargo transport of Belarus and Russia was introduced.

In the decision of the European Union, which was published in the official journal, it is said that the European Union, in accordance with the imposed sanctions, prohibits the import and transit of goods by road transport from Belarus and Russia to the territory of the European Union.

On November 22, Canada expanded earlier sanctions.

The lists included an additional 22 Belarusian officials, as well as 16 Belarusian companies related to the military industry, engineering, the financial sector and railway transport.

Among the sanctioned persons were those responsible for the transportation of Russian soldiers and equipment used for the invasion of Ukraine.

Belarusian Alfa-Bank and MTBank were included in the list of companies that came under sanctions.