The Agrupación Marjal, which brings together 100 owners, is offering 17 lots for sale with a total of 10,087 cubic meters and an average price of 93 euros per cubic meter.

The plantations have received PEFC certification, which guarantees that they have been managed according to sustainability criteria and strict environmental requirements.

Bids can be submitted until October 28 at the headquarters of the Marjal group and the auction will take place before a notary on November 5.

Granada, October 17, 2024

The Official Gazette of the Province of Granada has published the announcement of a new timber auction by the Producers Group Marjal Chopo, which brings together a hundred producers of Granada. This is the second auction organized by the entity -the first took place in October 2022-, but this time all the wood for sale has received PEFC certification, which guarantees compliance with good environmental and management practices in the cultivation of poplar.

In total, 17 lots with 16,474 trees and 10,087.195 cubic meters of wood are offered for sale with a joint minimum price of 943,265.49 euros, which means an average price of about 93 euros per cubic meter, although there are small variations between the different lots. The poplar trees belong to the municipalities of Santa Fe, Fuente Vaqueros, Láchar, Santa Cruz del Comercio and Purullena.

Patricia Gómez Agrela, promoter of the group and manager of the Confederación de Organizaciones de Selvicultores de España (COSE), explained that the aim of the auction is to concentrate supply, provide transparency and legal certainty to sellers and buyers, and consolidate the poplar wood value chain. This is a widespread formula in northern Spain, which allows offering the processing industry a stable and quality production, while favoring the interests of producers, who obtain better prices for their wood.

 

However, this is the first time in Spain that poplar wood with PEFC certification has been auctioned. An independent auditor has verified that the plantations have been managed according to a forest management plan based on a forestry itinerary with strict environmental and production sustainability criteria. “This certification guarantees, for example, that the crops do not use products that damage the soil or water, or that the soil between the poplars is not broken excessively, but that a vegetation cover is preserved that protects it from erosion, facilitates the infiltration of water and air into the subsoil and favors the presence of pollinating insects, without forgetting that the forestry management of the poplars must evolve towards the production of quality wood”, explained Gómez Agrela.

Putting certified wood on the market responds to the industry’s demand to offer sustainable and ecological products to consumers, who are increasingly aware of the environment, guaranteeing that they are not contributing to the deforestation of the planet.

Timber merchants have until October 28 to submit their bids for the different lots, in sealed envelopes. The opening of bids before a notary will take place on November 5 at 5 p.m. at the headquarters of the Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research and Training (Ifapa) of the Junta de Andalucía, on Camino de Purchil. The lots will be awarded to the highest bidder.

The specifications, the harvesting contract, the characteristics of the lots and all the information related to the auction can be consulted on the group’s website, chopomarjal.es.

LIFE Wood for the Future Project

The Marjal group, which brings together 100 producers with more than 1,400 hectares of poplar crops, was established in May 2022 within the framework of LIFE Wood for Future, a project funded by the European Union’s LIFE program for climate change mitigation, which includes the University of Granada, COSE and the Provincial Council, among other partners. The coordinator of LIFE Wood for the Future, Antolino Gallego, has expressed his satisfaction at the celebration of this auction, since the placing on the market of poplar wood with PEFC certification was one of the objectives of the project, which began in 2021 and concludes in 2025.