The output of forestry goods and the added value of forestry services were up because of two factors: a rise in the value of wood increment available for wood supply, and still relatively extensive efforts to clean up and replant forests damaged in the 2014 ice storm and attacked by bark beetles in 2015 and 2016, according to SURS.

The value of forestry goods reached EUR 470m or 86% of the total forestry output, while forestry services accounted for 80 million euro or 15% of the total.

Gross value added in forestry totalled 0.6% of the country's GDP, according to the Statistics Office.

The values of income categories increased from 2016: factor income was up 7% to EUR 184m and factor income per employee rose by 11% to EUR 25,411.

Income was influenced by somewhat higher value of forestry production, lower value of intermediate consumption and lower employment.

The value of sawlogs and veneer logs was estimated at EUR 161m, which accounted for 29% of the total production value or 5 percentage points less than in 2016.

Due to the efforts to clear the forests of bark beetles, the total amount of felled wood rose by some 30% last year in comparison with the years before the ice storm, to about five million cubic metres, but this was still lower than in 2016.

The forestry industry had a workforce of 7,232 last year, 3% down from 2016, of whom a vast majority or 5,860 were self-employed.