The Economics of Willow in Poland: Lessons Learned from an Entrepreneur

by Michael Jacobson (NEWBio) Michael Jacobson, Professor of Forest Resources at Penn State, recounts his October 2013 visit and conversation with bioenergy entrepreneur and willow grower Stanislaw Dolata, whose willow business is located in northwestern Poland. Jacobson toured Eastern Europe with fellow NEWBio researcher Larry Smart, Associate Professor of Horticulture at Cornell University.
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Shrub willow is native to many temperate regions including the northeastern United States and northern Europe. Breeding for high-yield hybrid shrub willow occurs in Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and the United States. In Europe, most of the commercial willow plantations are in Sweden and the UK but growth is most rapid in eastern European countries, especially Poland and Ukraine where vast amounts of land are 'available'.
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Most of the hybrid willow in Poland, about 8,000 hectares to date, is planted on relatively arable land, which is where one finds cereal crops such as wheat and barley. ... In terms of comparing willow to wheat and barley, willow does better at growing on poorer soils, and is more profitable. Therefore, most below-average soils are used to grow shrub willow.
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Borowice is a rural landscape with small towns, large acreages of Scotch pine plantations and scattered crop fields. It is not the bread basket of Poland, and seemed neglected in terms of development.
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Swedish varieties of shrub willow were planted in fairly good soils with relatively low pH, and no fertilizers or lime were applied. The land, said Dolata, was not good enough for higher valued grain crops given the un-level fields. No damage from insects or pests was observed in the fields, in part due to already good nutrient levels. Nitrogen fertilizer was recently added to some coppiced stands as a test. The jury is out as to whether or not this helped. One issue is leaf discoloration in the fertilized stands. This may be from the overuse of Nitrogen, since it was only seen after the fertilizer application.
Regardless, Dolata added that adding Nitrogen and or lime on low pH soils would not be economical. Market limitations were Dolata's main regret. but he also had much to say about willow production. Although all steps of the production process, from site preparation to planting and tending to harvesting, are critical, Dolata emphasized site and harvesting logistics. He stressed the importance of optimizing planting density, planting row length, space for harvest equipment, entry and exit of chip transport trucks, and storage of the chips. READ MORE