National Wood Product Material Flow Analysis: PRODCOM Data on Wood Products Supporting Improved Macro-Level Sectoral Assessments in Slovenia

The study investigates the production of harvested wood products in Slovenia by applying the volumetric material flow analysis (MFA) from processed roundwood to secondary product. The study provides the methodological approach for data collection and consistency assessment to support nation-wide wood MFA by complementing FAOSTAT data with selected data categories of PRODCOM data. Consistency between the two datasets was found to be satisfactory, suggesting that the two datasets can together support wood product MFA. However, for PRODCOM to be applied without extensive prior analysis, further methodological improvements of the databases would be required. MFA for Slovenia for the period 1994 – 2021 was carried out to understand pathways and magnitudes of wood flows in Slovenia. The MFA demonstrated that for many secondary products produced in Slovenia, there is clearly a lack of domestic resources (veneer, particle boards, and sulphite chemical and mechanical wood pulp). On the contrary, despite the abundance of the primary resource, few secondary products are made using non-coniferous wood. This research highlights the importance of detailed and accurate wood product data to support the MFA in identifying missed opportunities to create value and/or reduce environmental footprint of the national wood products industry.