Revival of the Woodworking Industry as a Key Task for Entrepreneurship

Ihor Khodak is not only the head and founder of the woodworking company “Vivad 09” and a deputy of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration. From December 10, 2012 he is the vice president of the All-Ukrainian Association of Woodprocessing Enterprises, which main tasks are protection of forests and promotion of the woodworking industry on the background of existing commitments of Ukraine within the framework of the membership in the World Trade Organization and the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

The Association members systematically organize working meetings of representatives of profile associations and woodworking enterprises of Ukraine and take part in activities aimed at highlighting relevant issues in this direction.

Ihor Khodak believes that the creation of a transparent wood market with a European approach is a key issue, which means the symbiosis of forestries and woodworking enterprises and the creation of a transparent chain of increasing added value for Ukrainian goods, raising the state’s economy.

Each cubic meter of wood should not run past the state. Elimination of the black wood market is a guarantee of a stable business development and a door to the positive perspective of the woodworking industry.

The legal instrument in such a difficult issue should be the law on the timber market, which will clearly regulate the rules, annual volumes of timber harvesting, the mechanism of pricing for raw materials and for the implementation of harvested raw materials.

Vivad 09 Ltd., headed by Ihor Khodak, together with other partners of the Association, made a lot of efforts to initiate the adoption of laws on a moratorium on the export of untreated timber, on increasing liability for the illegal harvesting of timber, transportation and storage of illegal timber. But all this is just the beginning of a difficult path that needs to be overcome to create a transparent sustainable timber market with equal conditions for all participants.

We should not forget that forest is not only a commodity. First and foremost, it is the embodiment of ecological and recreational functions; it is home for animals; it is a biological product that has its age of ripeness and overlapping. To put it simply, forest, besides the period of ripening, is no different from any other agricultural crop, and if it is not cut in time, the quality of timber is lost, without bringing any benefits to the state. Considering this, forest after reaching the age of maturity becomes an economically feasible product that must be harvested in accordance with all rules and sold by woodworking enterprises, which, in turn, must create jobs, taxes to the budget of the country, and, of course, create a final national product such as furniture or floor coverings, which again will provide benefit to the state in the form of currency revenues and Gross Domestic Product growth.

We must ensure that Ukraine’s forest reserves are always abundant in order not to turn Ukraine into a steppe state. We are obliged to value our resources, take care of them and contribute that forest becomes an important component of the development of the Ukrainian economy.