The amount of round wood timber exported from Latvia fell by 40.3 per cent during the first seven months of 2009, the Baltic Course has reported.

Information given to LETA by the Forests Department of the country's Agriculture Ministry show that 1.2 million cubic metres of the timber left the nation between January and July 2009.

In the same period of last year, 2.02 million of round timber was exported.

The value of round timber exports also fell to 34.64 million lats (£43 million) in the first seven months of this year, compared to 83.97 million lats during January to July 2008.

A total of 738,800 cubic metres of coniferous round timber was exported in the first seven months of 2009, along with 467,500 of cubic metres of deciduous timber.

Recently, it was revealed that wood production in Estonia increased slightly during May.

Figures released by Statistics Estonia showed that there was a 1.3 per cent rise in the volume of wood and related products created in the nation when compared to the previous month.

This news item is brought to you by KMS Baltics in conjunction with Fest-Forest and EST KINNISVARA. Baltic forestry and property specialists.