Eurostat publishes annual production and trade volumes for the main wood products in each EU country and a few neighbours. They cover roundwood removals, sawnwood, veneers, wood-based panels, pellets, pulp, paper and paperboard. It is the best consistent source for comparing the structure of wood industries across countries over a decade or more. For the latest years it is thin. We queried the live tables on 27 September 2026. Sawnwood production for 2024 was published for 20 of the 31 countries covered, and the tables held no EU production total for either 2023 or 2024.
What the usual answer says
The top answer to this search is Eurostat's own article, "Wood products - production and trade". It reports an estimated 510 million cubic metres of roundwood produced in 2022. The two largest sawnwood producers made about 24% and 18% of EU sawnwood output that year, it says. It notes that Eurostat has begun collecting data on glue-laminated timber, cross-laminated timber and I-beams. Coverage is thin: "Only 13 countries reported provisional production data for 2022". The page carries a line most readers will miss: "Data extracted in October 2023. No planned article update."
The broader overview on forests, forestry and logging is newer, with data extracted in December 2024. It gives 460 million cubic metres of roundwood for 2023 and says five countries produced more than 64% of it. Neither article explains how its total relates to the other's.
What the live tables hold
The tables behind those articles are more recent than either. The sawnwood and panels table was last updated on 4 January 2026, and the removals table on 6 November 2025. For a reference year ending in December, that is 10 to 12 months later. The reference metadata, last updated 19 December 2024, promises release "9 months after the end of the reference year". It also warns of delays of "up to 4 months late for wood products, mainly due to trade data taking longer and longer to compile at the national level".
This is what we found for the 31 countries in each table, reading each cell's flag from the API.
| Series, 2024 | Published | Of which estimated or provisional | Confidential | Blank | EU total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sawnwood production | 20 | 3 | 2 | 9 | none |
| Wood-based panel production | 19 | 4 | 3 | 9 | none |
| Roundwood removals, under bark | 25 | 5 | 0 | 6 | none |
For 2023 the picture is fuller. The 2023 sawnwood series has 25 of 31 countries published, but still no EU production total. In the removals table, one country's 2024 figure is flagged as estimated and is identical to its 2023 figure to the hundredth of a thousand cubic metres. Four more are provisional.
Why the gaps sit in both places
The metadata explains the design. Missing national figures "are estimated by Eurostat but not published or made available to its partner organisations. They are used for the EU totals, as are selected PRODCOM estimates". It also says data "are suppressed for at least three countries per product when required, with the aim of publishing EU totals", and that "Confidentiality is a problem due to mergers of enterprises and enterprises leaving the EU."
Two things follow for a reader. A blank or confidential national cell may be suppressed to protect another country's figure, so it tells you little about the country itself. And the EU totals the system is designed to protect are, for these recent production years, not in the tables at all. The totals quoted in the articles rest on estimates that the user can't see.
The metadata is also candid about accuracy. Estimating production from trade balances gives "a very conservative estimate". And "Removals of industrial roundwood may also be under-estimated."
What to use when a figure is missing
For a recent national figure, the national statistics office usually publishes its own series first, often with more detail. FAO's global forest product tables draw on the same joint questionnaire and are useful for comparing with countries outside Europe. PRODCOM, Eurostat's industrial production survey, reports sold production by product code and covers some items the forestry tables don't, though its own confidential cells follow similar rules. Whichever you use, record which source each figure came from, because the three won't always agree.
For long-run structure the Eurostat tables remain the right tool. Which countries make which products, and how that has shifted since 2000, is well covered.
Where AI helps
The flags in the API output (estimated, provisional, confidential, imputed, definition differs) are easy to lose when a table is copied into a spreadsheet. A model can pull each figure with its flag and the relevant metadata note, and count the gaps for the year and product. It can then warn when a comparison or share rests on a flagged, repeated or missing value. That is the check we ran for this piece, and it takes minutes rather than an afternoon.
When it doesn't apply
Businesses that need monthly or regional figures will find little here. Products outside the questionnaire's list appear only in trade or PRODCOM data. The gaps described here matter most to anyone using the latest year or two.
Quarri for wood products is built around how a wood products plant runs, where the order book meets real capacity.
Sources
- Eurostat, Statistics Explained, "Wood products - production and trade", data extracted October 2023, no planned update: ec.europa.eu
- Eurostat, Statistics Explained, "Forests, forestry and logging", data extracted December 2024: ec.europa.eu
- Eurostat, "Timber removals, wood products and trade (for_rpt)", reference metadata, last updated 19 December 2024: ec.europa.eu
- Eurostat API, "Sawnwood and panels" (for_swpan), updated 4 January 2026, queried 27 September 2026: ec.europa.eu
- Eurostat API, "Roundwood removals by type of wood and assortment" (for_remov), updated 6 November 2025, queried 27 September 2026: ec.europa.eu
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