Forestry as an investment 2022

The real return on assets in wood production in non-industrial private forests was 6.3% in 2022. Despite high inflation, the rise in wood prices pushed the return above the average of the previous 10 years.

• Returns on wood production was 6.3% in 2022 in mainland Finland. The return fell by 5.8 percentage points from the previous year's high and was one half percentage point below the previous five-year average.
• Income from roundwood sales accounted for +3.7 percentage points of returns, and state wood production subsidies accounted for +0.1 percentage points. Stumpage price change accounted for +1.1 percentage points of returns, and the value of net increment of growing stock for +1.7 percentage points. Total costs in wood production reduced the returns by -0.4 percentage points.
• By region, the return was highest in South Savo, North Savo and North Karelia (9%) and lowest in Central Ostrobothnia (0.4%).
• Net increment of growing stock had a positive impact on returns in every region. This means that the value of trees that grew in forests was higher than the value of trees felled.
• The return excluding the change in standing sale prices was 5.0%. This is more than one percentage point higher than 20 years earlier. The main reason for the increase was the rise in the value of the net increment due to the increase in the volume of the stand and the increased share of logs.
• In the return calculation, the stumpage value of the assets was EUR 61.5 billion in 2021, rising to EUR 63.3 billion in 2022.

Information about the statistics
The return on assets in wood production is an index of returns calculated based on felling, standing sale prices, state subsidies for wood production, wood production costs and stand data. The calculation relates income and costs to the stumpage value of the stand, calculated based on the volume of trees and standing sale prices.
The data are based on Luke statistics and the National Forest Inventory (NFI) on forest land for wood production. For the 2020–2022 stand calculations, the results of the 2017–2021 NFI measurements were used. In the statistics, the last two years are preliminary data, as the new inventory data are used to refine the stand data in the calculation.
The change in monetary value has been made using the Cost of living index (1951:10=100).