Why Lukashenko has high hopes on wood biofuel production

Pellets are fuel granules. They are essentially made from wood waste. This environmentally friendly biofuel can replace coal, oil, gas, and firewood. In Europe and some Asian countries, wood pellets have long been used on an industrial scale. In this episode of the BELTA YouTube project "By the Fact: Decisions of the First," we will tell you how pellets are produced, how much a ton of granules costs, and how Belarusians are encouraged to switch to wood biofuel. Attention: there will be many useful figures!

How many pellet production facilities operate in Belarus

There are 64 pellet production facilities operating in Belarus. These are enterprises of various ownership forms. Almost a third are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Forestry.

"These facilities have different capacities. Starting from small productions with a capacity of about 300 tons per month and ending with quite serious ones that have a production capacity of over 100 thousand tons per year. As for the Ministry of Forestry, our productions mainly have capacities of about 20 thousand tons per month," said Vladimir Krech, Deputy Minister of Forestry.
The total capacity of Belarusian productions is over 900 thousand tons per year. Initially, these were export-oriented projects. The global pellet consumption market is huge.

"Today, global pellet consumption is over 31 million tons. The main consumers are the UK (over 7 million tons), EU countries (over 12.5 million tons), Japan (4.5 million), and the Republic of Korea (6 million). Therefore, the construction of these facilities was primarily aimed at export," explained Vladimir Krech.

What Lukashenko demands from wood biofuel producers
A few years ago, the products of pellet plants were successfully exported to Europe. At that time, the producers faced the following task: to sell profitably, not to compete among themselves. This was one of the instructions of Alexander Lukashenko during his working trip to the Vitebsk region in June 2020.

"Well done, you've ramped up on pellets. You built these plants instantly. You started producing fuel," the President praised.

At the same time, he instructed the government to work on the issue so that pellet producers do not compete with each other in the European market, where there is a high demand for such products. "If we start competing with each other there, we will drive down the price, and we will become unprofitable. Take the realization of products into one hand," said Alexander Lukashenko.
Due to political conflicts, theeconomy. Sanctions pressure has made it impossible to export pellets to the European Union. In March of this year, while forming a new government, Alexander Lukashenko demanded that other sales markets be found.

"We agreed: pellets and again pellets. This is fuel. We have become extremely brazen: cheap natural gas – that's why we don't need firewood and other things. I don't know what the situation is with these pellets for you now, but this is your most important problem. After all, we built seven or eight plants last year to process this waste, junk, which is abundant in the forest, and make a wonderful product. Look for markets other than Europe. And Europe isn't going anywhere," the head of state said.
What fuel pellets are made from

In 2020, the first pellet production facility was opened at the Borisov Experimental Forestry based on the Nemantsa site. The total annual output is 30 thousand tons of wood pellets.

"In 2022, we built a second production facility. The first site produces white pellets, which are used in small boilers for domestic use. At the second site, we produce pellets for industrial needs," noted Viktor Amelyanovich, Director of the Borisov Experimental Forestry.

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