Graanul Invest Group was granted the Livonia Award

Graanul Invest Group received the Livonia Award for the development and design of Latvian economic and business scene.

On Thursday, 12 September, Estonian and Latvian chambers of commerce and industry held in Tartu the ceremony of Livonia business awards, which are traditionally granted to one Estonian and one Latvian company, who has contributed to the development of economic and business scene of the neighbouring country. In Estonia the award was granted to the forestry and energy group Graanul Invest, in Latvia to the forestry company Latvijas Finieris.

Graanul Invest operates in the entire Baltic region as well as in the USA, but half of total production capacity of the group comes from six Latvian pellet plants. Therefore the business taking place in Latvia is very important and meaningful for the company.

Almost a quarter of low-quality wood originating from Latvia gets new value from Graanul Invest Group, which has turned the company into major partner and supporter for forest owners and wood industry in the processing of wood residues. This has changed the use of wood with lower quality in Latvia and created a significant profit source for the forestry sector with the material, which was formerly considered waste.

Throughout the years, Graanul Invest has made several strategic investments in Latvia, of which the largest, and also the largest in the history of the group, took place in 2015, when the company Latgrani was acquired. Total volume of the investments of the company in Latvia through establishment and acquisition of plants exceeds several million Euros. However, production investments are not limited to this – the group is actively developing innovative solutions, in order to make production units more efficient and contemporary.

“Latvia is a major foreign trade partner of Estonia, so it is not a big surprise that cooperation is tight also in the wood sector, and Estonian companies are operating in Latvia and other way round. With tight cooperation with neighbours we increase competitiveness of our countries and mutual investments bring benefit to the entire region,” said Mait Palts, Director General of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.