Latvia with eight companies on HOUTBOUW

The Latvian timber industry has a lot to offer for Dutch timber construction. Latvia does not focus on large-scale mass production, but rather on smart and customer-specific solutions. From facade construction to CLT solutions and modular housing construction. It will all be available at the Houtbouw trade fair.

Latvia is a relatively small country with only two million inhabitants. Much of the country consists of forest, with high quality wood due to the different seasonal influences. There have been relationships from Riga in Latvia with, among others, the Dutch Hanseatic cities. For example, Dutch sailing ships sailed with masts made of high-quality Riga pine and even now a large part of the wood used by the Netherlands comes from the Baltic states, says Jēkabs Groskaufmanis. This also includes CLT and gluelam glued wood. But Latvia has a high-quality carpentry and wood industry and therefore has much more to offer than just the product wood.

Groskaufmanis works for a Latvian government organization and helps Latvian companies to find their way on the Dutch market and Dutch companies to invest in Latvia. At the Houtbouw Trade Fair he will be present with eight Latvian wood-related companies, each with their own specialty. The Latvian companies partly have a joint stand, but two of them will also be present with their own stand.

Innovation

Partly due to its limited population, Latvia does not focus on large-scale mass production, but rather on high-quality and customer-specific solutions. “Education is also designed for this. There are several technical universities, including a number that focus specifically on wood, but also on sustainable construction. In addition, there are all kinds of innovation processes underway , such as research into fire-safe facades and recycling of CLT.”

It has led to a high development of the timber industry, including the production of CLT parts, special connection systems for CLT, but also complete modular housing construction in wood. With all these components, the Latvian timber industry believes it can offer interesting solutions for the Netherlands. “The Netherlands wants to build a large number of homes and is also committed to sustainability. Our CLT industry and manufacturers of wooden houses are interesting partners for this. But our frame industry also offers opportunities. Not for large-scale production of standard products, but for complicated questions and high-quality project-specific solutions. Our industry can do that and we also have the knowledge of what the Dutch market demands and what requirements apply.”

The distance between the Netherlands and Latvia is not a problem, according to Groskaufmanis. “It’s shorter than many people think. A journey from Riga to Utrecht covers 1800 km and takes approximately 20 hours. This can also be easily bridged for the transport of wooden building parts. There are also options for water transport.”

Participating companies

CLT Profi and Klik-Klikwalls will have their own stand at Houtbouw. CLT Profi specializes in the production of CLT building parts. Klik-Klikwalls has developed a unique connection method for CLT without the use of screws. Other participants are Zaza Timer (gluelam glued wood constructions), Flora (façade construction) and the house builders ZTC, VIA-S, MyCabin Global and Amber Constructions. A number of these companies are already active on the Dutch market. The Latvian companies are looking for partners to grow together and would like to talk to visitors at the Houtbouw trade fair.

Published on https://www.houtbouwbeurs.nl