The demand for firewood is soaring in Alsace

In mid-December in Alsace, the mercury has been plunging well below zero for a few days. Firewood seller in Wissembourg (Bas-Rhin), on the border with Germany, Christophe Glad came to deliver logs and pellets to the Moose company, a specialist in stoves and fireplace inserts, based in Vendenheim, near Strasbourg.

Mr. Glad has been practicing “for 23 years” but this year is special: “I am always on the road delivering. We have to ration, deliver in two or even three times so that customers can start the delivery. 'winter', explains the man who chairs the trade union grouping of firewood merchants in Alsace.

"Speculation"

Many of its customers are in Germany, where "speculation" on wood is important: in France, the stere oscillates between "90 and 100 euros", against "70 to 80" previously. Across the Rhine, where dependence on Russian gas was very strong, it can go up to “200 euros”.

“There are more and more people who want to save money” and “wood”, in main heating as well as in addition, is “the cheapest energy”, confirms Laura Menrath, administrative assistant at Moose. It notes an explosion of log stoves this year, well ahead of pellet appliances.

"Before it was really 50/50", but now it's the log that is on the rise: at this Alsatian seller, only "one person in twenty" is now interested in pellets, she explains .

The Ukrainian conflict "boosts the European market", noted in November Patrice Escrieut, president of the Federation of Stove and Chimney Installers (FIPC).

With the consequence "a bottleneck at the factory level" and stove manufacturing times ranging from "four to twelve months", he explained on Sud Radio. "Too late" therefore for those who dream of buying a stove this winter, he warned, inviting customers to order now "for winter 2023".

Faced with this increased demand, wood sellers, who traditionally build up their stocks upstream in the year, have been struggling for weeks to keep up.

Normally, "we deliver during the summer" but this year, we continue to have "between 30 and 50 calls per day", with peaks "up to 100 per day", confides Mr. Glad.

He had to give up delivering to people who, fearing an excessively high energy bill, opted, unfortunately too late in the year, for wood heating.

"Bleeding Market"

"The market is totally drained, dry wood stocks have been at zero for a few weeks," confirms Jocelyn Auffret, firewood seller in Gertsheim (Bas-Rhin). He also recently had to decline orders from "people who had not had the reflex to order soon enough, whereas in May or June, I was already in the red".

Retired in Nordheim, west of Strasbourg, Joël Bûcher, 69, opted for wood heating "in 1988": in the living room of his 220 m2 house on the heights of this village in the foothills of the Vosges, sits an imposing tiled stove. A typically Alsatian "kachelofe" whose old technical framework boasts the refractory qualities which make it possible to heat a good part of the accommodation.

Like every year, he placed his order for five cubic meters of wood well in advance and did not notice an increase in the bill. At most a few extra euros on transport, a logical repercussion of the rise in fuel prices, he notes.

But next year, he expects things to be a little different: "Everything is going up, so I think we should also expect an increase" on the firewood side," explains Mr. Bûcher, who was advised by his wood seller to place an order earlier in the year.