This is how farmers become jewelers: The price of firewood is going through the roof, leaving customers gasping. Our current photo of a hardware store in Linz shows that 220 euros are already being asked – and presumably paid – for one cubic meter of logs. Just three years ago you could get the same amount for 80 to 90 euros.
“We know that up to 230 euros is already being demanded,” says Josef Wimmer from Waldhausen im Strudengau, farmer and founder of the Ofenholz association: “The big demand started in June, July and August. Our regular customers are important to us: This year you can still get the wood from the farm for 85 to 95 euros.Next year our price will be between 120/125 and 150 euros.”
Stocks are reserved
Whoever started stocking quickly enough was wise, as the postscript shows: because if you are not a regular customer, you don’t have to call at all, the stocks are reserved. There is a lot of bickering on online portals, sometimes there are regional bargains. Wimmer knows that the “toilet paper effect” is currently not only driving prices, but strange blossoms as well.
Even the Viennese come to the Mühlviertel
“A Viennese artist called me recently. She had an opening in Salzburg and thought she could stop with us in Waldhausen on the way back to load two cubic meters of wood into the rented van. I said yes. But shortly after, a friend of hers got in touch and then a few more who all wanted to buy cheap from us. Because it is cheaper for the Viennese to rent a van and get the wood in Upper Austria than to buy it in the city,” laughs the Mühlviertel farmer.
Wimmer and his wife founded the Ofenholz association 13 years ago to promote small rural farms as firewood producers. There are 78 members nationwide and a total of 200 nationwide. But it is not only private households that are craving wood as an alternative to gas. Large companies are also looking for the renewable material to generate electricity with wood chips. The price of wood doubled.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
