The total volume of input purchases of roundwood, which is wood removed from the forest in its natural state, was 3.8 million cubic metres in 2025, an increase of 7% from 2024.
In 2025, 42% of roundwood purchases came from privately-owned forests, up from 35% in 2024. Purchases from publicly-owned forests fell from 65% to 58%.
Large sawlog accounted for the highest proportion of roundwood purchase volume at 42% in 2025, followed by pulpwood (24%) and small sawlog (22%).
Purchases of non-roundwood products (including woodchip and sawdust) were 575,000 tonnes in 2025.
In 2025, 340,000 cubic metres of roundwood were used as biomass.
Note: Product definitions and a link to the survey questionnaire are available in the Background Notes.
Figure 1 shows the volume of roundwood input purchases from public and private forests. In 2025, the total volume of roundwood input purchases was 3.8 million cubic metres, with purchases from public forests comprising 2.2 million cubic metres and purchases from private forests comprising 1.6 million cubic metres (See Tables 1A, 1D and 1E). Coniferous roundwood accounted for over 99% of roundwood input purchases in 2025 (See Tables 1B and 1C). Sawnwood is wood produced from roundwood, with a thickness greater than 6 mm, through either sawing lengthways or a profile chipping process. Roundwood may be sourced from either domestic or imported supplies. In 2025, 1.2 million cubic metres was reported to be used to generate sawnwood products.
| Total roundwood purchases | Roundwood purchases from publicly-owned forests | Roundwood purchases from privately-owned forests | |
| 2016 | 2.921 | 2.252 | 0.669 |
| 2017 | 3.004 | 2.228 | 0.776 |
| 2018 | 3.071 | 2.214 | 0.858 |
| 2019 | 3.269 | 2.461 | 0.808 |
| 2020 | 3.137 | 2.148 | 0.989 |
| 2021 | 3.283 | 2.061 | 1.223 |
| 2022 | 3.182 | 2.248 | 0.934 |
| 2023 | 3.376 | 2.309 | 1.067 |
| 2024 | 3.577 | 2.335 | 1.242 |
| 2025 | 3.811 | 2.198 | 1.613 |
Figure 2 shows the volume of roundwood purchases by product in 2025. Large sawlog accounted for the highest proportion of roundwood purchase volume at 1,603,000 cubic metres in 2025, followed by pulpwood at 909,000 cubic metres and small sawlog at 855,000 cubic metres (See Tables 2A, 2D and 2E). Coniferous products accounted for over 99% of roundwood products in 2025 (See Tables 2B and 2C).
| volume | |
| Large sawlog | 1603 |
| Small sawlog | 855 |
| Stakewood | 104 |
| Pulpwood | 909 |
| Roundwood for use as biomass | 340 |
Purchases of non-roundwood products were at 575,000 tonnes in 2025, an increase of 32% on 2024 (See Table 3A). Woodchip accounted for the highest proportion of non-roundwood purchases at 418,000 tonnes, followed by sawdust at 93 thousand tonnes (See Table 3B).
In 2025, total input purchases of roundwood and non-roundwood products were at 3.9 million tonnes (See Table 4A). Roundwood purchases from public forests accounted for 1.9 million tonnes, with roundwood purchases from private forests accounting for 1.4 million tonnes (See Tables 4D and 4E). Coniferous roundwood accounted for over 99% of roundwood tonnes in 2025 (See Tables 4B and 4C).
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Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (18 September 2026) published Wood Input Purchases by Industry 2025.
Commenting on the release Cian Rushe, working in the Environment Division, said:
"In 2025, the industry purchased 3.8 million cubic metres of roundwood, which is wood removed from the forest in its natural state. This marked a 7% increase compared with the 3.6 million cubic metres purchased in 2024 (See Table 1A). This increase was likely affected by the impact of Storm Éowyn in early 2025.
Roundwood purchases from publicly-owned forests made up 58% (2.2 million cubic metres) of 2025 purchases with the remainder from privately-owned forests (See Figure 1, Tables 1D, and 1E).
Of the 3.8 million total cubic metres of roundwood, 1.2 million was reported to be used to generate sawnwood products. Sawnwood is wood that has been produced either by sawing lengthways or by a profile-chipping process.
Large sawlog accounted for the highest proportion of roundwood purchase volume at approximately 42% in 2025, followed by pulpwood (24%) and small sawlog (22%). In 2025, the roundwood for use as biomass was 340,000 cubic metres, this was an increase of 94% (See Figure 2 and Table 2A).
In 2025, purchases of non-roundwood products such as woodchip, sawdust, and post-consumer recovered wood (wood made available for reuse or recycling) totalled 575,000 tonnes (See Tables 3A and 3B)."