am writing this report in the midst of a maelstrom of a European debt crisis that is changing by the hour and seems increasingly intractable. The centre of this storm is the crisis in Greece and its potential knock on effect to some larger European economies. How does this affect us in the UK timber market?

The current market for standing timber remains buoyant despite some underlying concerns by end users. Demand for standing timber from merchants and direct harvesting organisations has kept standing prices in a very healthy state during 2011 with prices continuing to rise.

The earlier than expected snow late last year, caught many markets by surprise, resulting in low timber stocks for many end users. This shortage caused some markets in all categories of round wood to offer some prices on a project basis to recharge their inventories.