A new system for selling timber, forestry and harvesting rights will be launched before Christmas, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

Those involved in developing the new trading mechanism have insisted that it will be “transparent and user-friendly”, and provide an independent index to growers who wish to sell forestry or timber.

A Kildare-based company, which is backed by agriculture and forestry sector professionals, has been working on the new trading system for the past 18 months.

A source close to the grouping told the Irish Farmers Journal that the launch of the trading mechanism was “imminent”.

Timber pricing issue

The issue of timber pricing has come to the fore over the last month after it emerged that the Wood Price Quarterly (WPQ), which is compiled by UCD and the Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA), was unable to secure sufficient data to provide timber prices to growers.

WPQ said an absence of data supplied by Coillte, private forestry companies, consultants and timber processors meant it was impossible to provide accurate standing timber prices to the industry.

The current method of selling timber needs to be professionalised

The volume of timber coming on the market from private growers is expected to increase significantly over the next 15 years.

While the country’s 23,000 private sector foresters currently supply 1.2m cubic metres of timber, this is set to grow to 3.5m cubic metres by 2026 and to 4m cubic metres by 2035.

“The current method of selling timber needs to be professionalised, to mirror the manner in which the Coillte auction system works,” a forestry consultant told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“At the moment, many farmers are unable to accurately gauge the value of their forests,” he added.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) recently called for the establishment of an independent price index for Irish-grown timber.

The farm body said producers and buyers should feed into the confidential system. Such a mechanism would include Coillte and private forest owners, as well as sawmills, panel board mills and energy companies, the IFA maintained.