Forestry on farmland as owners branch out

Demand for plantation potential increasing

A booming, land-hungry forestry industry coupled with the likely impact of Brexit on many farming fortunes looks likely to lead to more Scottish farmland being planted in trees.

Increased demand for land with tree planting potential is predicted in the latest UK forestry market report which was launched yesterday in Edinburgh.

It describes a buoyant industry, with more than £111 million of forestry traded in the past year – 40% more than in 2016.

In the report John Clegg & Co partner Fenning Welstead highlights the growing demand for farmland and suggests that the future fortunes of the farming industry in the changing world of Brexit “together with generational succession” will have a significant impact on forestry.

“There is a move towards exciting new afforestation programmes with positive support from grants and political will,” he stated.

“Potentially, significant opportunity for afforestation may result either from existing farmland owners planting parts of their land or from changed ownership to forestry investors.”

The report states that there has been renewed interest in large-scale conifer plantations in the past 12 months, with several large areas of land purchased for such schemes. Prices in the range of £3,000-£5,000 per ‘plantable’ hectare have been paid for the best land.

The report shows that the market returned to its normal growth after a quieter year in 2016 with 87 forest properties sold – compared to 67 the previous year. The total of £111.04m is up £31.8m from 2016 and against a five-year average of £104m a year. A total of 17,272 hectares were traded, 78% of which were in Scotland.

Writing in the report Mr Welstead points out that large scale commercial plantations have been in strong demand but the supply of such properties is decreasing.

There is a move towards exciting new afforestation programmes

Farmers may want to take a slice of the lucrative forestry market.