Energy crisis: Austrians hoard firewood

So Austrians haven’t lugged home that much firewood for a long time. Not only in retail, but also directly from the forests that cover almost half of Germany. In many places between Bregenz and Eisenstadt, citizens hoard the renewable raw material, which prompts observers to say: wood is the new toilet paper. The reason for this is the uncertainty on the energy markets, triggered by the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the high level of dependence on natural gas. “There is enough wood in the forest,” says the chairman of the Austrian Forest Association, Rudolf Rosenstatter. In an interview with the FAZ, he currently still supplies regular customers as a farmer and timber dealer, but he has to turn away some new customers. He points out that the forest in Austria is managed sustainably: “It grows far more than we use.”

In fact, with a large forest area like Austria, there is a lot of raw material – the country is one of the largest exporters of sawn timber in the world and the forest-wood value chain is an important pillar of the economy. However, this is not suitable as firewood in the short term. After all, the wood needs two years to dry. Only then does it heat well, experts know.