The Galician Forest Industry Agency considers that Current eucalyptus production reserves in Galicia are sufficient to meet the production needs of the Portuguese company Altri, responsible for the project build a textile fiber factory in Palas de Rei (Lugo), denying that it will be necessary to expand the current cultivation area to ensure its viability.
The forest resource availability assessment report was prepared at the request of the General Secretariat for Industry and Energy Development and, according to Europa Press, states that The plant will produce approximately 400,000 tonnes of cellulose pulp each year, 200,000 tons of lyocell and 31,500 tons of biomass. For this purpose, the development company estimates its productive demand at 1.2 million cubic meters of eucalyptus wood per year.
To reason that the needs are covered, the organization indicates, on the one hand, that Galicia produces an average of 5.8 million cubic metres of eucalyptus wood per year, of which just under half – around 2.6 million cubic metres – are consumed in Galicia, including the 1.5 million that Ence uses to make paper pulp. The remaining 3.2 million cubic meters are exported for its transformation in countries such as Portugal, the Basque Country and Asturias.
On the other hand, explains the impact that a 5% reduction in eucalyptus area will have which is foreseen according to the Galician Forest Plan 2021-2040 and concludes that this will not constitute an obstacle. Currently, around 160,000 hectares of the Galicia Costa area are occupied by this species – 30 million cubic meters of wood – and, if we count the rest of the territory, this figure is estimated at 70 million cubic meters. Likewise, the organization emphasizes that, given the young age of the plantations, an increase in the availability of eucalyptus wood is expected in the next five years.
To prepare its report, the Galician Forest Industry Agency used data from the National and Galician Forest Inventory, prepared by the Forestry Engineering Schools of the Universities of Vigo (UVigo) and Santiago de Compostela (USC).
