Europe’s 5 most valuable trees which have made forest owners wealthy
Europe’s most valuable trees are determined by various factors: the type of wood with its technical properties such as hardness, durability, and weight. The rarity of a tree also plays a role; the rarer it is, the more sought-after it is. Aesthetic considerations are also important, such as color, structure, grain, and even fashion trends, i.e., whether the wood is currently in vogue.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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The desirability and quality of the wood must match
When evaluating high wood prices for different tree species, perspective is important. Are we talking about the average price of a type of wood? The price per cubic meter? Or the price of a single log? In any case, there are some eye-openers for those outside the industry. Looking at the record price per cubic meter, the picture is as follows: Maple, service tree, oak, walnut, and spruce have what it takes to fetch top prices.
This does not mean that you should store wood instead of gold in your vault; top prices are achieved at auctions where exceptional qualities meet the desires of buyers. Here are a few examples of how forest owners have earned good money.
The top 5 types of wood
— Sycamore maple produces a highly sought-after wood, especially in its curly maple variant, which has a distinctive grain. At the central Hessian timber auction, a buyer paid €12,689 per cubic meter, totaling €32,230 for 2.54 cubic meters of trunk. At a timber auction held by ThüringenForst in Erfurt-Willrode, the price was €6,280 per cubic meter, or €9,796 for the trunk.
— There are rumors of prices of up to €14,000 per cubic meter for service trees (Zu Elsbeeren geistern Zahlen von bis zu 14.000 Euro pro Festmeter herum.). The absolute top price is documented, with a service tree from the Arnstadt Forestry Office fetching €4,400 per cubic meter.
— Oak is also among the frontrunners: an English oak trunk fetched €3,489 per cubic meter at the Malchin valuable timber auction in early 2026. At the end of 2024, oak trunks from the state forest of the Wettenberg Forestry Office fetched €3,342 per cubic meter and a total price of €12,131.46.
— In Lower Austria, walnut wood sold for €3,010 per solid cubic meter in 2024. In 2021, there was already a bid of €2,878 per solid cubic meter.
— Incidentally, even though spruce trees are considered the bread and butter of forestry, they can also fetch the highest prices. At €1,113 per cubic meter, the trunk from Schnann, a village in western Tyrol, achieved the highest price ever paid for a trunk at the Tyrolean auction. That is quite extraordinary. In 2024, spruce in the Coburg region also fetched a remarkable price of €468 per solid cubic meter.
Globally, woods fetch even higher prices.
For all those who see dollar signs in their eyes, it is important to remember that trees need time to grow and produce the coveted wood. And that top-quality wood is sometimes rare because a lot can happen in the lifetime of a tree.
If you look overseas, you will also find types of wood that make our oak, maple, and service trees look like bargains. African ebony, for example, costs between 10,000 and 15,000 euros per cubic meter. Even more is asked for
agarwood, also known as oud. It is a rare and precious, resinous wood. It is produced in the core of Aquilaria trees when they are infected by a certain mold. It is said that 100,000 euros have already been offered for the wood.
Source: agrarheute.com
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