CEI-Bois, representing the European woodworking industries, announced that its newest member is the Lithuanian Wood Processors Association. Source: Timberbiz
“On behalf of CEI-Bois I would like to welcome as our newest member the Lithuanian Wood Processors Association. Like all organisations lobbying in Brussels the bigger our membership the bigger our potential influence. I am sure our new Lithuanian colleagues will bring an additional and welcome perspective to our collective work, including an understanding of the wood industry from within their own country and from the Baltics more widely, along with their unique European perspective,” CEI-Bois Chair Sampsa Auvinen commenting on the addition of Lithuanian Wood Processors Association to the membership said.
Raimondas Imbrasas, Director, Lithuanian Wood Processors Association said that one of the main reasons why they wanted to join CEI-Bois was because they wanted to know about upcoming decisions in the EU Parliament.
“Politicians in Brussels and decision makers at the Commission and Council need to listen more to businesses and society when they make changes in legislation. In addition, we think that CEI-Bois have knowledge of lots of practises in the wood industry across Europe that they could usefully share with us. We would also like them to come to visit us in Lithuania and have meetings with institutions and companies,” he said.
The addition of the Lithuanian Wood Processors Association will increase the number of national members of CEI-Bois to 16. It also means that all the Baltic States are now represented within CEI-Bois.
The Baltic States are vital for the European woodworking industry and Lithuania punches above its weight in the wood industry. According to Eurostat, as of 2020, about 20,000 people were employed in Lithuania in the woodworking and sawmill industry.
This equates to approximately 9% of the workforce employed in the Lithuanian manufacturing sector (the overall share in the EU is about 3%).
In 2020 there were about 3,000 companies active in the woodworking and sawmill industry in Lithuania which equals about 14.5% of companies in the Lithuanian manufacturing sector (the overall share in the EU is about 7.5%).
