foreign firewood

[biggarlogs]

as a traditional firewood supplier should we be worried about firewood imports affecting our sales.it seems that the traditional wood cutters are multi skilled people who fell trees ,transport them .process the wood ,store and deliver a locally produced product,sustaining jobs in the locality,and minimising carbon footprint ,as well as controlling disease .

should we be worried about wholesale imports by unskilled people who only want to make a quick buck with no regard for the above,someone with a small shed and forklift to move crates etc?

who are these people ,commodity traders?anyone who can find the cash to buy a container load of logs ?

is it for the long term or are they just jumping on the bandwagon.all i can see is that we will lose some sales to the importers but is it sustainable??

i fear i may be opening a can of worms but comments welcome from both sides.jake

[Woodworks]

Don't see why we should be worried.

 

The prices I have seen make it more expensive than home grown. The selling point seems to be how dry it is but that's in the region of 20% which is quite achievable on our shores with a bit of patience. Can only see it being sold because we sell wet rubbish or have run out. You will always get a few who think it must be better because it came out of a kiln but you can't teach stupid.

 

Have plenty of dry stock and I can't see it making much impact

[all aspects]

There was a thread on here while back of foreign wood that was bought by someone here and got ripped off as it was trash,better to deal with those around you

[woody3]

packaging seem better, that seems about it. i bet they dont tell the customer about kilns run by burning tyres

[woodyguy]

Also for many consumers, wood can be too dry. Burning wood well below 20% is very hot and fast, so people don't always like it. Yes they don't want damp smouldering logs but kiln dried is a bit of a joke, if you then stack it in your damp shed and it goes up to 25%. The risk of infection does worry me more than the economics TBH.

[Two Acres]

Surely it would be relatively easy to compete on sustainability grounds? the carbon footprint must be massive, with the kiln drying and shipping combined? That turns what should be a green product into an unsustainable one.

 

Is there a UK local log supplier association? If not there should be.

[kev7937]

Guy I know buys imported stuff and it really is an excelent product, I gave him the no's of all the local suppliers and he buys them from this other company based in Scotland. I can only think its because its a far superior product all nice straight bone dry ash that basicaly comes in its own log store delivered straight onto his drive so no handling or stacking for him.

 

All he has to do is split them a little bit more as they don't fit on his piddly little fire but he probably enjoys that bit tbh.

[timbernut]

I have asked most of my regular log customers if they'd be interested, because at the start of this season I was a bit panicked about havin enough cord, and none were interested because they'd prefer to buy from local source (and some said wouldn't want logs too dry). Think the convenience of it turning up ready stacked is the main appeal to most.

[Pinkfoot]

I delivered to two customers who don't like kiln dried stuff because they have to move it from their drive and it is a long walk.

.

[woody woodpecker]

Hi I can see that there are advantages with imported wood all you need is a forklift for unloading the lorry and a pickup for delivery as apposed to buying in lorry load off cordwood and needing tractor with loader and timber grab ,processor ,chainsaw for wood that wont fit in the processor , log splitter , nice weather for processing and drying ,and larger area for storing wood as its not stacked as per imported wood in nice square easy stacking wooden crates.