{"id":86940,"date":"2023-10-27T06:43:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T06:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tin.happy-projects.ro\/can-paulownia-replace-spruce-in-european-construction\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T09:00:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:00:58","slug":"can-paulownia-replace-spruce-in-european-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/can-paulownia-replace-spruce-in-european-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"Can paulownia replace spruce in European construction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European market for timber framing and construction is today dominated by spruce-based products.\u00a0The available standing volume is difficult to assess but remains substantial even after 5 years of the bark beetle crisis.\u00a0The quantity of spruce available, the strength of the associated industry and its European involvement combine with sanitary felling to undoubtedly allow spruce to dominate the European structural timber market for at least a certain number of years. Alternative species have a lot of work to do to carve out a share of the market.\u00a0This domination will undoubtedly come to an end.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Replanting avoids this endangered species.\u00a0It is difficult to count on a replacement, but undoubtedly on a range of competitors and among them, paulownia benefits from both good and bad press.\u00a0For experts, it is a bad wood long imported from China, a species blacklisted because it is invasive, particularly for the tomentosa variant which is widely used in Paris.\u00a0Equally problematic is the idea of \u200b\u200bgrowing trees like agriculture, in rows of onions.\u00a0In return, the paulownia attracts the general public with its extreme capacity to grow and store carbon.\u00a0Likewise, this tree may be very useful for developing agro-forestry, or protecting crops with plant cover.<\/span><\/p>\n

Paulownia is hardly supported by the institutions of the national or European wood sectors because it falls outside the framework and rather enters the framework of agriculture.\u00a0On the other hand, a market for processed products based on paulownia is emerging and, temporarily avoiding that dominated by spruce for construction, it is characterized by high profitability, a large demand not satisfied by supply, a growth potential served by multiple niche markets which benefit from very light wood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although we insist that we must eat less meat, the reality of our time favors the corn sector associated with biogas.\u00a0It\u2019s a bit like the spruce tree of agriculture.\u00a0However, we should see paulownia plantations develop quite massively over the next few years.\u00a0Its water requirements deserve a comparative study in the same way as those for fertilizers, apparently also concentrated over the first three years.\u00a0Insecticides are not necessary even if the species faces natural threats (mice, rabbits, ungulates, etc.).\u00a0According to the founder of WeGrow, Peter Diessenbacher, the analyzes carried out during his studies show that the water requirements of Paulownia are lower than those of other agricultural plants.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the moment, Paulownia is climbing its media incline as a great hope for carbon capture.\u00a0But we know that in our civilization of spectacle, glories are sometimes ephemeral and blacklisting is difficult to counter.\u00a0For the moment, despite obvious sympathy from television channels, the paulownia market is developing somewhat on the sly in its small niche with pioneers measuring successes and setbacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

In France, among the first players, there is Renaud David from Paulownia France, which claims to have been present in this market for 20 years already.\u00a0With his help, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique Santi launched a test site in 2019 with the cereal producer Hugo Aug\u00e9, as we read on the Du m\u00e9tier website.\u00a0One hundred trees in Guercheville, on the edge of a cultivated plot and according to \u201cthe maximum surface area authorized by the administration for non-agricultural crops in order to continue to receive European aid\u201d.\u00a0In about ten years, the logs will fill a truck.\u00a0At the same time, Renaud David and the France Paulownia company from Ares in Gironde are launching Ecoplante 374, a selection adopting a DBH of 35-45 cm on 5 m of straight log between 6 and 8 years in a Mediterranean or continental climate.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Renaud David, it is said on the media De profession that he follows several plantations in Europe and the Maghreb and also collaborates with a research center in Romania to select his plants.\u00a0According to him, his approach is very different from that of the German WeGrow, represented in France by Arbre Paulownia, a company created in 2021 in Plougoulm in Brittany by\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Julien Kloesmeyer\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>and Sandrine Berkel.\u00a0WeGrow, based in T\u00f6nisvorst in Lower Rhineland, is certainly the best structured company in Europe in this market.\u00a0Created in 2009, it has just carried out a capital increase and opened up to private investors.\u00a0The company started from the manipulation of a non-reproductive and therefore non-invasive hybrid, adapting it to the risk of frost and therefore to planting in Germany.\u00a0However, it is in Spain that WeGrow has its main plantations.\u00a0The German headquarters produces very small plants in winter, transported by plane to the southern hemisphere, or the rest of the time, larger plants transported by truck.\u00a0WeGrow advises buyers especially during the first three intensive years after planting, has accumulated a wealth of experience and offers customers to buy back the wood at the time of harvest after 8-12 years.\u00a0If the desired growth is achieved after 8 years, the repurchase takes place from that date.<\/span><\/p>\n

WeGrow has managed to finish the cycle just as it seems several other European countries but not France, and is concentrating more and more on the development of the downstream sector, knowing that the supply is far lower than the demand in more and more numerous fields, and that it is able to reach mass.\u00a0This is why it changed its policy and favors contracts which allow it to take back the wood after the trees have grown.\u00a0The logs are cut near the plantations by sawmills and the dry sawn timber is put on sale.<\/span><\/p>\n

WeGrow is well aware that the European spruce situation does not allow it to compete for several more years, and moreover, even if the production of paulownia wood is progressing, volumes are still very low compared to the spruce market. .\u00a0However, WeGrow is increasing cooperation to test constructive solutions, but also all kinds of innovative development solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, WeGrow published about the opportunity now offered in Germany in the field of agro-forestry.\u00a0There are two options, the first consists of using the first years of growth to develop crops, when the canopy is not yet too developed.\u00a0However, the crops attract rodents and hinder frequent interventions for the first years.\u00a0As for agro-forestry over many years, you must ensure that you have fairly open canopies, or space out the rows.\u00a0Regulatory constraints and aid currently still constitute obstacles to the development of agro-forestry, but this subject, once the darling of conferences, seems to be becoming a real issue but not necessarily WeGrow's specialty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason paulownia is a carbon sequestration monster is because of its large leaves.\u00a0But photosynthesis only works thanks to water and the plants need a supply of water, particularly during the first three years.\u00a0This is a bit what distinguishes them from sylvan plantations where the hydraulic regime is left at the mercy of bad weather.\u00a0In addition to water, fertilizer is needed.\u00a0But on an equivalent surface area, one hectare of WeGrow hybrids is supposed to capture between 35 and 45 tonnes of CO2 per year, compared to 10 to 13 tonnes according to WeGrow for a mixed forest.\u00a0Which means that paulownia will become the carbon supplement for agriculture just as wood is the carbon supplement for construction.\u00a0Except that construction is undergoing its transformation in the wake of RE2020 and despite strong resistance from the entire sector, but the same cannot be said of French or European agriculture.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European market for timber framing and construction is today dominated by spruce-based products.\u00a0The available standing volume is difficult to assess but remains substantial even after 5 years of the bark beetle crisis.\u00a0The quantity of spruce available, the strength of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4716],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan paulownia replace spruce in European construction? - Timber Industry News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/can-paulownia-replace-spruce-in-european-construction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ro_RO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can paulownia replace spruce in European construction? 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