In the context of changing global economic patterns and restructuring of global trade fluidity, trade exchanges between Russia and China showed new growth points in 2023, especially in terms of exports of wood products. According to the latest data of the Russian Federal Bureau of Forestry Industry, Russian pulp exports to China in 2023 achieved significant growth, increasing to 25.4%, to a total of 3.6 million tons. This growth rate far exceeded the increase in Russian wood and raw wood exports to China, showing a significant change in the structure of Russian forest products exports.

In terms of wood exports to China, the total volume of Russian exports to China in 2023 remained at 13.6 million tons, equal to 2022. This data reflects that in some fields of wood products, Russian exports to China have reached a certain saturation state, and the growth space is limited. At the same time, pulp became the star product of Russian exports to China, and in 2023 pulp exports to China were 1.4 times last year, close to 2 million tons. In addition, paper and pulp exports also exceeded 1.6 million tons, and the exports of forestry chemicals reached 1.83 million tons, showing that Russia has strong competitiveness and market demand in the export of pulp and related products.

Analysts point out that the large growth in pulp exports reflects the strong demand for high-quality forest products in the Chinese market. With the steady growth of the Chinese economy and the improvement of peoples living standards, the demand for raw materials such as pulp continues to grow, which provides a broad market space for Russian forest products. In addition, the rise in environmental awareness has also prompted the Chinese paper industry to adopt more and more sustainable raw materials, and Russias rich forestry resources can meet this demand.

It is worth noting that in 2023, Russian saw exports to China grew by only 3%, while unprocessed timber exports fell by 25%. This change is related to the Russian governments policy to restrict the export of raw timber. In recent years, the Russian government has gradually implemented restrictions on the export of raw timber in order to protect domestic forestry resources and promote the upgrading of the forestry industry chain. This policy has led to a decline in the exports of unprocessed timber, but also promoted the development of Russian forestry products and increased the added value of exports.

With the continued deepening of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, the structural adjustment and upgrading of Russia’s exports of forest products in the future is expected to continue.Especially in the export of pulp and other high-added value forest products, Russia is expected to further expand the scale of exports to the Chinese market with its rich natural resources and processing capabilities to the win-win development of trade between the two sides.