World’s concentration of forest products exports

Abstract

The world’s economy has undergone several changes and crises that may have altered the dynamics and structure of the forestry market after 2008. Thus, the objective of this study was to measure the concentration of the international market of the main forest products between 2008 and 2018. We used the Concentration Ratio [CR(k)], Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI), Theil Entropy Index (E) and Gini Coefficient (G) to evaluate the forest products concentration. Our results showed that American and Asian countries have risen and taken positions of major forest products exporters to European markets over the years. The main exported product was “Paper and cardboard”, followed by “Lumber”, “Pulp”, “Wooden panels”, “Wood for industrial purposes” and “Energy”. Brazil's global share stood out in the pulp and paper segments. The forest products market concentration was classified as low for CR4, moderately low for CR8, unconcentrated and highly competitive for HHI and Entropy indices. Furthermore, the market was classified with inequality from very strong to absolute using the Gini index indicating that exports come from a small number of nations.