Development trends in the regional forest products market (In the case study of the Arkhangelsk region)

Abstract

The article considers the issues of international trade of the regional forestry as regards the development of competitive non-primary sectors in the manufacturing industry of Russia. The purpose of the study is to identify the issues and development trends in the international trade of the forestry enterprises in the region’s economy (in the case study of the Arkhangelsk region). Research methodology includes a comprehensive approach to identifying the forestry products export issues, structural and dynamic analysis, a shift-share analysis, and the localization coefficients. The novelty of the study is supported by the fact that the analysis of the localization coefficients revealed the promising economic specializations of the Arkhangelsk region, including timber production. Specialization-based classification of the economic activity types has been improved for the region’s economy. Export capacity of the regional forestry has been analyzed, and the development areas of the enterprises’ international trade have been defined, the enterprises being the forest products manufacturers. These areas are based on the measures aimed to increase the share of the highly processed products in the export structure. The study justifies the key export areas for the regional forestry in terms of product structure and geography of the international business ties. Structural shift method has been applied to analyze the impact of different groups of factors (national, regional, industry) on the development of the export policy in the regional forestry. Enterprises’ management features and methods, forestry legislation, public policy in forest resource management, availability of the conditions for the medium- and small-sized companies in the region, openness of the region’s economy to the international trade, regional investment strategy are found to have an impact on the efficiency of the international trade in the regional forestry. The study’s findings can be used by the regional public bodies to improve the forestry development strategy. They can also be of interest to the top management of the forest products manufacturers to identify the promising development areas for the international trade. Further research will focus on defining the balanced export structure for the regional forestry products.