2020

Last Year, LVM Nurseries Sold the Largest Amount of Seedlings so Far

In 2019, JSC “Latvia's State Forests” (LVM) structural unit “LVM Sēklas un stādi” (LVM Seeds and Plants) sold a record large number of seedlings - 56.3 million seedlings. The high-quality seedlings were mainly used for the restoration of state forests, using 26.5 million seedlings, whereas the rest were sold on externals markets, where 15.9 million seedlings went to the forests of Latvian private forest managers and 13.9 million were exported.

Sales of seedlings have increased due to investments in seedling production in previous years, totalling 52.5 million seedlings or 93% of the total seedling amount being produced applying the new technologies. The largest share of the marketed seedlings, or 29.7 million seedling, is made up by bare root seedlings with an improved root system - 22.8 million seedlings.  

Last year, LVM seedlings production capacity expansion project was launched, which, by the end of the project, will increase the capacity of LVM Seeds and Plants to 68 million high-quality seedlings per year by the year 2023.  

Almost all seedlings grown at LVM nurseries are from selected seeds obtained from special seed production plantations. The cultivated seedlings allow increasing the productivity of forest stands by about 18-20%, as compared to seedlings that are grown from seeds harvested in forest stands, as well as reduce the life cycle of a forest stand by 10%.

“Today, most pine seedlings are grown from the seeds from the second stage seed plantations, thus increasing the productivity of the young forests by up to 25%. It is the result of long-term forest selection work that has been carried out in Latvia since the 1950s,” says Guntis Grandāns, Director of LVM Seeds and Plants.

Besides, part of the plants are treated with alternative, environmentally-friendly plant protection methods, such as biowax to protect young trees from possible insect damage in the forest. The three largest LVM nurseries are equipped with state-of-the-art seedling treatment lines, while Strenči and Podiņi nurseries also have waxing lines. In turn, in the western part of Latvia, sand and glue treatment of plants is offered; there are only seven such lines in the world: six in Sweden and one in Latvia.

“We are happy about the growing interest in our plants expressed by Latvian private forest managers; therefore, in order to meet the needs of local foresters, we have slightly reduced the amount of seedlings that we export. The biggest interest in Latvian-grown seedlings comes from customers in Sweden, but smaller quantities are also purchased by our neighbours - foresters in Estonia appreciate our spruce seedlings, whereas fast-growing aspen seedlings are still in high demand in Lithuania,” says Guntis Grandāns, Director of LVM Seeds and Plants.

For the Latvian market, LVM mainly grows pines and spruces. In Sweden, by contrast, spruce is mainly marketed. Small amounts of deciduous tree seedlings - birch, black alder - are sold in foreign markets, but mainly foreign markets demand coniferous trees - pines and spruces.

Every year, LVM recovers thousands of hectares of forest area, planting two new seedlings per each felled tree. Healthy and growing forests are capable of providing more carbon dioxide and oxygen production, so it is vital to implement sustainable and prudent forest management throughout the year.