State-owned forestry company suffers loss in profit due to bark-beetle infestation

The state-owned forestry company Česke Lesy saw a 70 million crown loss in profit in 2018, down from 3.08 billion crowns the previous year.

The reason was a significant fall in the price of timber due to the bark-beetle calamity that has hit many areas of Bohemia and Moravia, which resulted in extensive logging.

Logging in infested areas was given top priority while other plans were shelved, which meant that the company mainly did business with lower quality timber.

České Lesy owns almost half of the forests in the country.