Sweden’s furniture group Ikea has increased its forest holdings in Lithuania by 50% to 15,000 hectares over the past 12 months, catching up with Euroforest, the largest investor in Lithuanian forests until recently.
The Ikea Group now owns one of the biggest private forest portfolios in Lithuania, but it accounts for a mere 0.7% of the country’s forests, market participants say.
There were a total of 250,000 forest owners with total forest holdings of 883,000 hectares in Lithuania last year. The State Forestry Enterprise is the country’s largest forest holder with 1.1 million hectares.
The Constitution does not allow the state to privatize its forests.
