Democrats: Taraba's Claims about Timber Exports Proven Wrong by Official Data

Bratislava, 8 August (TASR) - The statements made by Environment Minister Tomas Taraba (a Slovak National Party nominee) that much more timber was exported from Slovakia when the current opposition was in charge are not true, the non-parliamentary Democrats party stated on Thursday (7 August) in response to Taraba's post on social networks earlier in the day, citing official data. The Democrats referred to a draft Report on Forest Management in the Slovak Republic for 2024, the so-called Green Report, submitted by Agriculture Minister Richard Takac (Smer-SD). "In 2024, exports were higher than in the years that he referred to. And, worse than that, exports of saw-logs are at record-high levels, at 940,000 cubic metres (m3), meaning a shortage for Slovak processors," said former environment ministry state secretary Michal Kica, the Democrats' expert on environment issues. Last year's exports of timber were therefore higher than in 2021 or 2022, the years mentioned by Taraba. According to official documents, 2.064 million m3 were exported in 2021, followed by 1.888 million m3 in 2022. Conversely, under the current government, exports have reached 2.649 million m3, states the draft Green Report submitted by Takac for the inter-departmental review. Taraba stated on social media earlier on Thursday (7 August) that "in 2021-2022, when Hlina's SaS and Budaj's people were in charge of forest management, four million m3 of wood were exported from Slovakia, with the main buyers being Romania, Poland, China, and Italy. Just so we don't forget who is making a song and dance here." [Alojz Hlina is an MP for the opposition party Freedom and Democracy (SaS) and Jan Budaj was the then environment minister for the opposition OLaNO party, later renamed as 'Slovakia' - ed. note] jrg/df/ko