European Commercial Forestry Plots (Robinia)
 The Europian Forestry Plots offer two different options.
Firstly, you can purchase a freehold plot where you own the land and trees. The aim is to maximise the returns by letting the trees grow for around 10 years.
Then your trees can be harvested and you make the best returns from your investment. You can then also re-sell your land plot if you wish or plant more trees on it.
The second option is to purchase a Leasehold Plot. This enables you to have a much shorter exit strategy but still receive good fixed rate return on your investment.
The Robinia Investment is a strong product. It is especially suited for those who want to increase their capital for the longer term.
Your projected overall return on your Robinia Investment will consist of three elements: Robinia Prices.
- Sale of poles
- Sale of biomass (renewable energy)
- Sale of your land (from 2 hectare)
Your Robinia Investment after 10 years:
Plot Size |
Number of Trees |
Investment |
Projected Return |
ROI |
1/2 Hectare¹ |
3,000 |
€ 12,000 |
€ 45,688 |
280% |
1 Hectare¹ |
6,000 |
€ 23,000 |
€ 91,376 |
297% |
2 Hectare² |
12,000 |
€ 40,000 |
€ 212,972 |
294% |
Check current Robinia Prices
- You will be subleasing the land, not owning it. Projected return comes from sale of posts and biomass.
- You will be purchasing the land (Freehold). If you invest in 2 hectares you can pay the costs for Care & Maintenance in 4 yearly rates of € 3,500. Your total investment is then € 54,000.
NB: In the tables mentioned above, we have calculated a 6% price increase per year for your Robinia polewood, 10% for your biomass and 8% for your land.
This results in a return per year of 15% compounded.
EnergieAgentur.NRW
We also calculate that from your 6,000 trees per 1 hectare, 1,000 trees will not be suitable to make poles, because they are simply too small or will have died. All your returns in these tables are therefore calculated with 5,000 trees per hectare.
Your investment includes costs for:
- Purchase or sublease of the land
- Purchase of trees
- Preparing land for planting
- Building a fence
- Constructing irrigation
- Maintenance for 10 years
- Land Tax of 3.5% (from 1 hectare)
- Fire and Storm insurance
- Certification for your trees
- VAT for the maintenance
- Regular progress reports
Harvesting & processing costs: In your projected return, 20% harvesting & processing costs have already been deducted. For more details, please go to the calculation page.
For more information about the individual returns for poles, biomass and land, please go to Tables for poles, biomass and land
Naturaly these calculations are all based on the assumption that prices will increase. For those among you who want to see what your projected return will be when all prices DECREASE for 10 years, we have made a table for a negative scenario for your 10 year Robinia Investment
How to calculate returns
You make a profit by selling your Robinia poles, biomass and plot. The optimum time for this is after 10 years. In our calculation we have already taken into account the costs of maintenance, harvesting and processing costs.
When first planted, your Robinia trees are approximately 0.5 cm thick and 60 cm high. Your Robinia trees grow roughly one cm in width and one metre in length per year. As you see, it's a very fast growing tree, three times as fast as a European Oak.
After 10 years per hectare:
The height of your Robinia trees reaches its maximum at 10 to 15 metres. From that point on, they only grow in width. After 10 years, your trees will be around 10 to 15 metres high and 10 to 12 cm in width. Due to natural fall out, we estimate that from your original 6,000 trees, 1,000 trees can not be harvested after the 10th year. In all the calculations we are working with 5,000 good trees after 10 years.
Regrettably, you cannot use your entire tree for making poles. We estimate that only the lower four metres are suitable for making poles. When you estimate the yearly price increase of 6%, you get the following return on your investment for one hectare with 5,000 trees:
Total Investment = € 20,000 (Purchase Price) + € 8,000 (Total Care and Maintenance)
1 tree = 2 poles of 2 metres
10,000 poles (two metres in height) x € 9.31 (price per pole) = € 93,100
Certification: + 15% (optional)
Harvesting costs -5%
Processing trees into poles: -15%
Total: € 85,674
. |
