Pellet placed on Serbian market to be subject to mandatory lab analyses from now on

From this year, producers and importers of pellet will have to check the quality of that energy source in accredited laboratories before they distribute it. That, according to the Pellet Association, should remove bad pellet from the market, but also increase its price ahead of the next heating season.

According to the new Rulebook on Technical and Other Requirements for Solid Fuels from Wood Biomass, briquettes and pellet will have to undergo a lab analysis before being sold in the Serbian market. The tightening of the control will prevent the distribution of content with the presence of harmful matters.

– Accredited laboratories will do this, where producers will have the obligation to have the mentioned analysis carried out each 6 months. And so will importers of pellet before putting the pellet on the market – says Danko Pusicic, the president of the Pellet Association of Serbia.

– The introduction of the rulebook means that there will no longer be bad pellet, but there will be no cheap pellet either. Pellet producers from the countries in the region, some of them, use very bad raw materials, from diseased trees. That is not the case in Serbia, we use wood exclusively from “Srbijasume”, which is standardized, and pellet of very high quality is made from it – emphasizes Pusicic.

In “Srbijasume”, they claim that, due to the increased demand for wood for heating and the raw material for the production of pellet, the forest fund is not jeopardized. The forestation of new areas with over three and a half million saplings is planned this year.

– In the second half of the year, we expect pellet to become twenty to thirty percent more expensive, primarily due to that rulebook. Other things have also influenced the increase of the price of pellet. From May 1, the price of electrical energy increased for industry by around 24 percent – points out Danko Pusicic, the president of the Pellet Association of Serbia.

Serbian producers expect support from the state, says Pusicic, the kind they had last season, through the measure of a ban on the import of pellet. A longer heating season led to increased consumption, so the warehouses have been quite emptied, but for now there are no shortages and producers advise purchase before the price increase.

JP Srbijašume Beograd

Pellet AssociationČičić

Srbijašume

Danko Pušičić

Ivan Stanisavljević

Ivan Čičić

pellet