•     Mainly, Romanian furniture producers use timber, plywood, solid wood panels, raw chipboards, MDF boards and veneered wood.
•     Romania ranks 8th regarding wooded areas in Europe, but only 20th in the EU regarding the level of forest coverage. The total forestry area in Romania covers 6.56 million hectares (2017 data), about 27.5 percent of the country’s total territory. This rate is lower than the European average of 32 percent. But the country has about 2.2 mil. hectares of degraded agricultural land which could be used for afforestation.
•     National Administration Forestry is the owner of 49% of forestry area and the major wood supplier.
•     By species, deciduous are predominant: out of this total area, beech trees represent about 31 percent, coniferous trees (spruce, fir, pine) about 26 percent, oak about 16 percent, other hardwoods 20 percent, and other softwoods 7 percent.
•     Romanian forest is among Europe’s oldest and most pristine. Overall about 60 percent of the forestry area falls into the age classes of between 21 – 80 years. Young forests, aged 0-20 years, account for 11 percent of the total forest area
•     Less than 300,000 hectares of old-growth forests are now thought to exist in the Carpathians, with 200,000 of those situated in Romania. Only 18 % are in protected areas. New evaluations in Romania estimated over 100,000 ha of potential virgin forests.
•     Illegal logging is a pervasive problem which continues to threaten the country’s valuable forests, but “Romania is well on its way to becoming a world-leader in involving its citizenry in governing its own forests in a unique and innovative way” – according to Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a U.S.-based NGO. The latest example is the “Forest Inspector” portal allowing users to view ongoing and historical data about all timber transports in the country.
•     Based on the National Forestry Administration data, about 35 percent of total forestry area is certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. Considering the clear orientation of this industry to the export market, where forest certification is mandatory, it is expected that this certification process will accelerate in the upcoming years (USDA report, 2017).
•     Only the furniture producers which obtain special certification from the Government could participate at the tender sessions organized by the National Forestry Administration for standing timber to be removed in the following year
•     The volume of timber available for exploitation in Romania represented less than 70% of the total wood (down from almost 90% in 1990), one of the lowest levels of exploitation in the EU. However, the country ranked 6th in terms of the ratio of the volume of timber and forest area available for exploitation (280 m3/ha), well above the EU average (172 m3/ha). (2015 data)

References: Romanian National Institute of Statistics/European Commission, Report on EU furniture market situation, November 2014/ USDA – foreign agricultural service, Report on Romania forestry and wood products, March 2017/Environmental Investigation Agency – press release, December 2016/WWF  - press release September 2016, PWC - The forestry and wood processing industry in Romania, press release, October 2016/Transylvanian Furniture Cluster).