Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83 (2007), s. 63–75
GDK: 839.8:903.1(045)=111
Prispelo / Received: 04.04.2007               Izvirni znanstveni članek
Sprejeto / Accepted: 21.05.2007                             Original scientific paper
Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern 
of questionnaired households
Benjamin LESKOVEC1, Iztok WINKLER2 
Abstract
The research of wood fuel trade is market management oriented at household level. We devoted our attention to determine the key 
questions, market segmentation and market potentials. 909 households, which took part in the questionnaire and received financial
support to purchase a wood biomass boiler from 2003 until 2006, represented our data source. The analysed pattern of questionnaired 
households indicates a vast unrealized developmental potential at placing additional quantities of chunkwood and forest chips on the 
market. Own forests still represent the most important heating source in households. Switching to wood biomass heating is practiced 
particularly by fuel oil consumers. Since the consumer has been placed into the centre of our research, we present some fundamental 
findings on product making and product development, its price, sale, promotion and management control. Our findings indicate that
right business decisions and the ability to adjust to the market fluctuation enable us good developmental possibilities.
Key words: wood biomass, wood fuel trade, households, marketing-mix, market management, chunkwood, forest 
chips, pellets, Slovenia
Vključevanje potrošnikov v oblikovanje trga lesne biomase na primeru anketiranih 
gospodinjstev
Izvleček
Raziskava trga lesne biomase je usmerjena v tržno poslovanje na ravni gospodinjstev. Posveča se definiranju ključnih vprašanj,
segmentaciji tržišča ter tržnemu potencialu. Vir podatkov je 909 anketiranih prejemnikov finančnih vzpodbud za nakup kotla na lesno
biomaso v letih od 2003 do vključno 2006. Vzorec anketiranih gospodinjstev kaže velik in nedosežen potencial pri plasiranju dodatnih 
količin sekancev in polen na trg. Lasten gozd je še vedno najpomembnejši vir goriva. Prehajanje na ogrevanje z lesno biomaso 
je največje pri potrošnikih kurilnega olja. Ker je bil potrošnik postavljen v središče raziskave, smo podali temeljne ugotovitve o 
ustvarjanju in razvoju proizvoda, ceni, prodaji, promociji in kontroli poslovanja. Ugotovitve kažejo, da pravilne poslovne odločitve in 
sposobnost prilagajanja gibanju trga odpirajo dobre razvojne možnosti.
Ključne besede: lesna biomasa, trg lesne biomase, gospodinjstva, marketing-mix, tržno poslovanje, polena, sekanci, 
peleti, Slovenija
1 B. L., univ. dipl. ing. gozd., Alma Vidova ulica 12, 6330 Piran, SLO, benjamin.leskovec@replika.si
2 prof. dr. I. W., BF, Oddelek za gozddarstvo in obnovljive gozdne vire, Večna pot 83, 1000 Ljubljana, SLO, iztok.winkler@bf.uni-lj.si
1 Introduction
1 Uvod
As a renewable and environmentally friendly source 
of energy, wood biomass (WB) is an important item in 
development strategies of developed and environmentally 
aware societies. But due to previous neglect, our knowledge 
and expertise of the basic parameters regarding this source 
is severely inadequate (KRAJNC, N. / PIŠKUR, M. 2006).
It was soon established (WINKLER 1992) that a free 
market of wood biomass could not be formed overnight. 
Different issues occurred regarding the extent of necessary 
wilful and planned effect on the factors, which are set as 
conditions for the functioning of a complete competition 
in the wood biomass market. 
Market research is therefore the basic form of 
activity helping individuals and organisations to attain 
the necessary information on consumers, competition and 
distribution channels. The aforementioned information 
serves as a basis for identifying business problems, 
discovering opportunities and needs and to control 
operations.
Our research is focused on market management 
(marketing), which is directed into satisfying existing 
and potential consumers. With the aim of achieving this 
goal, we need to resolve issues marked with the elements 
of “marketing-mix” (MARUŠIĆ 1989). We will remember 
them with the help of four initials “4P”. These are the 
64            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
initials of the four words indicating a larger number of 
activities, namely Product, Price, Place and Promotion.
The first element is the Product and it indicates
the activities regarding planning and development of an 
individual product. The second element of the “marketing-
mix” is the selling price. The price is extremely important 
since the correct formulation and price policy are crucial 
for a good financial state with regards to the conditions
present in the market. The fact remains that the buyers and 
the sellers behave in a rational way (LAVRAČ 1979).
The third element is the place marking the activities. 
The goal of the activities is to bring the products intended 
for the market to the place where the exchange takes 
place. “Promotional activities” are the fourth element 
and are apparent in different forms, namely as: economic 
messages, publications, public relations and other.
So the main focus is on the consumer since the 
primary task of market management is the fulfilment of his
needs. This fulfilment is achieved with the aforementioned
combination of the “marketing-mix”: by creating and 
developing a product, with a price that will be acceptable to 
the broadest possible range of users, with a well organized 
sale and with the help of a satisfactory promotion.
2 Previous studies
2 Dosedanje raziskave
Studies from the field of developing systems of
determining forest owners based on external factors 
(BOHLIN, F. / ROOS, A. 2002) and achieving a durable 
management (MÄLKKI, H. / VIRTANEN, Y. 2003) are 
found at the forefront of the research after 2000.
Since Sweden, Austria and Finland are the leading 
countries in the field of wood biomass development in the
European Union, it is understandable that the latest studies 
come from these countries. And so a unique computer-
supported programme has been developed and it helps 
the forest owners to decide how to use wood biomass for 
energy purposes in their forests (RÖSER and associates 
2006).
Thorough analyses on key development factors of 
use of wood biomass from the forest for energy purposes 
have been conducted in Finland (HAKKILA 2006) as 
well as in Sweden (BJÖRHEDEN 2006).
We can expect first increases of use and the awakening
of the wood fuel trade, especially in the European Union 
countries (HILLRING 2006). We can keep this sort of 
estimate due to encouraging results of a study on 20-years 
countryside development experience and the use of wood 
biomass in Sweden (HILLRING 2002).
The studies in Slovenia in the field of potential
estimates, broader use and other influences of increased
use of wood biomass for energy purposes took part within 
the framework of research carried out at the Slovenian 
Forestry Institute, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 
Slovenia Forest Service and at the Department of Forestry 
and Renewable Forest Resources at the Biotechnical 
Faculty. 
Very little research work has been implemented on 
the forming and following of wood fuel trade at the level of 
the consumer, or this sort of work has been accomplished 
only partially and incompletely within individual 
research projects. Due to the sustainable manner of forest 
management in Slovenia, several foreign findings are
unsuitable or can only be used to a limited extent.
3 Object of the study
3 Objekt raziskovanja
The objects of the study were 909 recipients of 
financial support (Table 1) for the purchase of a wood
biomass boiler from 2003 to 2006. The addresses of the 
questioned households have been emailed to us by M.A. 
Jani Turk from the Sector for Activities of Efficient Use
and Renewable Energy. 565 households responded to the 
inquiry. The participants also represent the households of 
individual apartment houses in Slovenia. 
Table 1: Total number of questioned households that have 
received financial support to buy a wood biomass boiler
(from 2003 to 2006)
Preglednica 1: Celotno število anketiranih gospodinjstev, 
ki so v letih od 2003 do vključno 2006 prejeli finančne
vzpodbude za nakup kotlov na lesno biomaso
Wood biomass  
Lesna biomasa 
Year  
Leto 
2003
Year  
Leto 
2004
Year  
Leto 
2005
Year  
Leto 
2006
TOGETHER  
SKUPAJ
Chunkwood / Polena 72 69 114 334 589
Pellets / Peleti 11 10 22 164 207
Forest chips / Sekanci 21 33 18 41 113
SUM / SKUPAJ 104 112 154 539 909
The basic data was acquired by questioning reference 
people in the households, who were mainly responsible 
for the decision to purchase a wood biomass boiler, which 
uses chunkwood, forest chips or pellets as a heat source. 
The reference person in the completed questionnaires was 
in 87.8% male and in 12.2% female.
4 Objectives
4 Namen raziskave
Knowledge of market potential is crucial in any 
organisation. Defining the market potential is especially
useful when determining areas of sale and the necessary 
quantities of the product.
The prediction of the sale is therefore one of the 
most important activities in the market operation, since 
all the production, trade and service activities depend on 
a successful sale. That is why the main goal we are trying 
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 65
to achieve by anticipating consumption and sale lies in 
the determination of the quantities of the product, which 
we are trying to launch on a specific market in a specific
period.
Here two basic questions arise, which we are 
trying to solve, and these are: “Who are our potential 
consumers?” and “What is the quantity of the product the 
consumers will actually need?” The first question applies
to the consumers segment (target group), while the other 
question applies to our prediction of the consumption.
After the process of denationalisation of the forests, 
it is more than obvious that an owners’ structure is formed, 
which has a very important market share and special forms 
of market behaviour due to the property and production 
size and different economical reasons.
An essential part of the study is therefore concentrated 
on the market segmentation, which is an old unknown 
element of marketing and cannot be easily solved. A 
clearly defined segment of consumers of our products and
the knowledge of necessary characteristics are namely the 
key to a successful business operation.
After a clearly defined consumer segment and the
determination of its size, marketing becomes easier as far 
as the definition of the product, its price, sale, promotion
and control are concerned. And the latter factors present 
the central part of our study.
5 Methods
5 Metode dela
The process of market research demands a logical 
sequence of activities leading us to information for 
making business decisions in the field of wood fuel trade.
The definition of key questions was the first task of the
research process and this was followed by definition of
data type and origin. 
The questions in the form apply to sex, education and 
the status of the reference person. The questions also deal 
with access to information, recognition of organization 
work, sources of information, suitability of various forms 
of expert help, ways of attaining and the reasons for 
choosing wood biomass heating. We also concentrated on 
questions related to price, transportation, supply and the 
amount of wood biomass required for heating. Part of the 
questions deal with the duration of the heating season, the 
size of the living area, thermal insulation of the house, 
the use of solar collectors and the importance of wood 
biomass in the household.
We used the “approach with the help of the 
consumer’s characteristics” to determine and measure the 
market segment and this is based on characteristics arising 
from biographical (e.g. climate, region), demographic 
(e.g. sex, age, education) and psychological factors 
(e.g. motives, mentality, belief).
565 households (Table 2) or completed sealed 
questionnaires (62.2% of all received) with 22 questions, 
which we sent via the mail, represented the research 
pattern. The majority of the questions required one 
or three possible answers at the most, with some of the 
questions requiring a short and simple answer. If none of 
the options proved to be suitable, the answer was written 
under “Other”.
Table 2:  Number of returned questionnaires in view of 
individual wood biomass type and years
Preglednica 2: Število vrnjenih anketnih vprašalnikov po 
vrsti lesne biomase in letih
Wood biomass  
Lesna biomasa
Year 
Leto 
2003
Year 
Leto 
2004
Year  
Leto 
2005
Year  
Leto 
2006
TOTAL 
SKUPAJ
Chunkwood / Polena 44 42 61 220 367
Pellets / Peleti 4 7 12 105 128
Forest chips / Sekanci 13 25 11 21 70
SUM / SKUPAJ 61 74 84 346 565
This was followed by the entry of the data into an 
Access data base, programming, analysis and interpretation 
of the data collected in the field. The data was presented
in tables, then the percentage was calculated and other 
indicators determined.
At the end we made 50 clear Excel tables with 
product presentations in a form, which is suitable for many 
creators and members of the wood fuel trade in Slovenia. 
But this is merely the beginning of chain reactions for 
the marketing as a whole and this will help to set up a 
transparent wood fuel trade in Slovenia.
6 Results and discussion
6 Rezultati in razprava
To start with, we will state the typical questions 
that we need to answer with market research and which 
occur in the phase of research planning and defining. We
will answer these questions on a smaller scale due to the 
limited funds and time.
1. What are the development tendencies in domestic 
production regarding other countries? How will 
this affect the market of our product?
2. What are the expected changes in the customer’s 
behaviour?
3. What are our future needs regarding sales personnel, 
representatives, distribution centres and storage 
facilities?
4. What are the chances of opening new markets? 
What sort of products and services will be required 
to meet their demands? Can the markets, in which 
business is now being conducted, offer good 
perspectives?
5. Are there more effective channels of distribution for 
the product we are selling? What are the predictions 
and possibilities of launching our products in other 
countries? 
66            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
An insight in certain tendencies and characteristics 
of development in the field of wood biomass among the
questioned households in Slovenia reveals that the better 
part of 95% of the participants are inclined towards 
modernization and development of bigger wood biomass 
systems for remote settlement heating (Table 3). They 
estimate with fewer than 95% that the trend of wood 
biomass use will increase in the future (Table 4). The 
latter is an indirect indicator of good development chances 
of wood fuel trade in Slovenia.
Table 3: Modernization support and development of 
bigger wood biomass systems for remote settlement 
heating among questioned households (expressed in 
percentage)
Preglednica 3: Podpora posodobitvam in izgradnji 
večjih sistemov na lesno biomaso za daljinsko ogrevanje 
naselij (DOLB) med anketiranimi gospodinjstvi, izražena 
v odstotkih
Support / Podpiram No support / Ne podpiram 
95.4% 4.6%
With Table 3, one evidently needs to consider that 
a high support in favour of remote settlement heating 
systems does not necessarily mean that the households are 
willing to connect to such systems.
Table 4: Evaluation of wood biomass future use in 
questioned households (expressed in percentage)
Preglednica 4: Ocena trenda rabe lesne biomase v 
prihodnje med anketiranimi gospodinjstvi v odstotkih
Increase / Povečala Same level  Na isti ravni Decrease / Zmanjšala 
94.2% 5.3% 0.5%
Also, if we take a look at the state of wood biomass 
for the whole of Slovenia, we can ascertain that wood 
biomass is at the forefront as the only heating source 
with the questioned households (Table 5). Apart from 
the aforementioned, very clear tendencies of the future 
development can be seen in Table 1, which also shows a 
very high increase in the number of new pellet boilers in 
the last year and an increasing trend of new chunkwood 
boilers.
Table 5: Position of wood biomass as heating source in 
Slovenian regions
Preglednica 5: Položaj lesne biomase kot vira ogrevanja 
v gospodinjstvih po slovenskih regijah
Only source 
Edini vir
Main source 
Glavni vir
Second source 
Drugi vir
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ 72.6% 26.7% 0.5%
The estimated needed amount of used individual 
type of wood biomass (Table 6) can at least partially tell 
us the consumption of the households during the heating 
season. Of course we need to consider the estimated 
quantities in a limited extent due to the fact that in several 
cases the questioned households did not clearly specify 
the exact volume, cubic or linear metres of wood biomass. 
With pellets and forest chips, the participants even 
manipulated last year’s heating season stock. We will get a 
better insight into the household consumption for a single 
heating season in the future when we specify the use in m2 
of heated living area. 
Table 6: Evaluated average and needed wood biomass 
quantity for the heating season in questioned households
Preglednica 6: Ocenjena povprečna in potrebna količina 
lesne biomase v anketiranih gospodinjstvih za eno 
kurilno sezono
Chunkwood / Polena 18.5 Stacked volume meter / prm 
Pellets / Peleti 4,860.3 kg
Forest chips / Sekanci 60.9 m3
6.1 Product
6.1 Proizvod
When we are designing end products, we at least 
partially wish to answer the following questions because 
they will lead us to a consumer-friendly product.
1. What are the specific characteristics of our end
product? What type of existing product seems the 
most successful one?
2. How will we offer the product on the market?
3. What is the reason for bad sales results? The 
product itself? The nature of our service? Which 
are the necessary changes?
In this part, the most important information can 
most clearly be evident in the key reasons when deciding 
on wood biomass heating for individual households 
(Table 7). With 52.6% of the answers, the most relevant 
reason in the last year is clearly the increasing cost of other 
rival energy sources. 
An important piece of information is seen in the 
fact that as many as 37.8% of the questioned households 
use beech chunkwood (Figure 1). This information is of 
vital importance to anyone launching beech chunkwood 
in wood fuel trade.
 
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 67
Figure 1: Prevailing tree type among the questioned 
households using chunkwood
Slika 1: Prevladujoča drevesna vrsta med tistimi 
anketiranimi gospodinjstvi, ki kot kurivo uporabljajo 
polena
Further product development will be significantly
influenced by the average power of heating devices on wood
biomass, the duration of the heating season, the average size 
of the heated living area and the aforementioned estimated 
consumption of individual type of wood biomass per m2 of 
heated living area.
And so the average power of heating devices totals 
to 24 kW with pellets, 25 kW with chunkwood and 46 
kW with forest chips. The average duration of the heating 
season is in the interval of 6.2 and 6.5 months. The shortest 
heating seasons are expected in the regions of Goriško and 
Primorska. 
The average size of a heated living area in m2 has 
been decreasing in the years of the research but it still 
surprisingly totals 198 m2 in the analysed households. 
And so the Podravska (229 m2), Savinjska (222 m2) and 
Pomurska region (203 m2) still have the biggest average 
size of a heated living area. The latter is, from the 
energetic point of view, aimless, but from the perspective 
of the spatial possibilities and especially the rural area 
accompanied by farm buildings it is easily understandable. 
It is possible that due to the aforementioned spatial 
possibilities and tradition, the energetically lowest average 
size of a heated living area can be found in Primorska 
(151 m2) and Goriško region (156 m2), which are 
furthermore accompanied by a milder climate.
If we look at the 2002 census, we can determine 
that the average size of a heated living area in Slovenia is 
around 75 m2 (SURS 2002), nearly three times less than 
in the questioned households. Our research nevertheless 
confirmed the theory on wood biomass use in our research,
which states that the users of pellets have the smallest 
and the users of forest chips the largest heated living 
areas (KRANJC 2005). We determined that, regarding 
the questioned households, the users of pellets have the 
smallest (165 m2) and the users of forest chips the largest 
(268 m2) heated living areas. The average heated living 
area with users of chunk wood is 182 m2. 
Regardless the aforementioned findings of the
study, it would be correct to point out the estimated use of 
individual type of wood biomass per m2 of heated living 
area. The latter amount to: 0.1 prm/m2 for chunkwood, 
0.22 m3/m2 for forest chips and 29.34 kg of air dried wood 
per m2 of heated living area in a single heating season. 
Despite the importance, we cannot make a definition with
chunkwood and forest chips regarding air dried or fresh 
wood considering that the participants gave no special 
attention to this question. 
The consumption of energy gained from wood 
biomass in the questioned households can also be 
expressed in kWh/m2. The yearly consumption of energy 
is the highest with forest chips (176 kWh/m2) and chunk 
wood (175 kWh/m2), and it slightly drops with pellets 
(144 kWh/m2). Regarding the average yearly consumption 
of energy per m2 in Slovenia, which is rated between 150 
and 180 kWh/m2 (AL-MANSOUR and associates 2002), 
the consumption of energy in the analysed households 
falls within this interval. 
6.2 Price
6.2 Cena
Wood is the only energy source, which is privately 
owned and can be bought off the market at considerably 
lower prices, or can even be attained at no cost if one makes 
its own firewood and if we disregard the cost of labour and
wood. Questions regarding the price are therefore even 
more important.
1. What is the price we set for the product?
2. What sort of price differences can we anticipate 
within one product?
3. Will we change the price when the production costs 
go down?
Table 7: Key reasons for wood biomass heating per individual years in questioned households
Preglednica 7: Ključni razlogi za ogrevanje na lesno biomaso v anketiranih gospodinjstvih po posameznih letih
Year  
Leto 
Wood biomass price  
Cena LB 
Fin. support  
Fin. spodbuda 
Own source of WB  
Lasten vir LB 
Supply - Accessible 
Oskrba-Dostopnost 
 Environ. friendly  
Okolju prijazno
Growing prices of 
energ. 
Rast cen energ. 
Modern boilers 
Sodobni kotli 
2003 32.8% 36.1% 55.7% 24.6% 31.1% 26.2% 44.3%
2004 24.3% 35.1% 58.1% 23.0% 40.5% 25.7% 48.6%
2005 29.8% 29.8% 44.0% 26.2% 48.8% 33.3% 38.1%
2006 37.9% 39.9% 37.9% 12.4% 36.1% 52.6% 35.0%
37.8%
22.3%
36.7%
3.2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Beech tree
Bukev
Deciduous trees
Listavci
Mixed fire wood
Mešano
Others
Drugo
68            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
The prices of the firewood or chunkwood shown
in Table 8 of course only apply to those users who need 
to purchase the firewood in the market. We estimate that
these users only amount to a few percent, which can also 
be confirmed by the empty spaces in Table 8. Most users
of this source namely heat the premises at a significantly
lower cost, some even for free if we disregard the cost of 
labour and energy used to prepare the firewood.
Completely different findings are evident with
pellets, where the price has risen significantly, especially
in 2006, which is also seen in a wide price range of pellets 
in Slovene regions. The reasons for this can be found in 
different times of purchase and the incapability of wood 
fuel preparation. The latter was significantly used by the
big pellet merchants, who consensually raised the prices 
due to a lack of competition and for a short time pushed 
the owners of pellet boilers into a corner.
A significant difference in prices is not seen with
forest chips because the set prices are still a result of a 
very personal, co-dependent and locally conditioned 
relationship between the buyer and the merchant and 
mainly a locally represented form and manner of heating.
6.3 Sale
6.3 Prodaja
To enable a satisfactory or even an improved sale, 
we first need to explore the existing connection between
the manufacturer and the consumer. If an organisation or 
an individual wish to define their distributing policy, they
initially need to know their existing possibilities available 
to them. At the same time one needs to know and evaluate 
the answers to the questions, which affect the distribution 
of the product.
1. Which are the decisions that must be made at the 
store level?
2. What are the needs for storage facilities at certain 
locations?
3. What is the form of transport to the warehouses, 
agents or directly to the customer?
4. What are the measures we need to take in the case 
of “force majeure”?
It is evident in Table 9 that the average of the four 
year studies one’s own forest still represents a key source of 
wood fuel in more than half of the questioned households, 
Table 8: Individual wood assortment average price on wood fuel trade as evaluated by questioned households in 
Slovenian regions (expressed in EUR)
Preglednica 8: Povprečna cena posameznih vrst gozdnih sortimentov na trgu lesne biomase po oceni anketiranih 
gospodinjstev v slovenskih regijah, izražena v EUR
Regions / Regije 
Chunkwood 
Polena 
EUR/prm
Pellets / Peleti 
EUR/kg
Forest chips 
Sekanci  
EUR/m3
Log wood 
Cepanice 
EUR/prm
Logging residues 
Okroglice 
EUR/prm
Rounwood 
Okrog. les EUR/
prm
Stemwood  
Goli  
EUR/m3
Dolenjska 54.25 0.20 45.90 37.56 60.09
Gorenjska 50.54 0.21 11.48 54.25 52.16 45.90
Goriška 49.61 0.20 11.52 45.90 41.73
Koroška 0.24 13.35 50.08
Notranjska 0.20 41.73
Osrednja 53.59 0.22 12.46 48.68 41.73 48.51
Podravska 47.57 0.23 12.52 43.82 43.12
Pomurska 44.86 0.22 20.45 44.51 54.25
Posavska 0.21 50.08 31.30 50.08
Primorska 47.99 0.21 29.21
Savinjska 54.25 0.21 12.52 50.08 62.59 47.99
Zasavska 54.25 0.26
SUM / SKUPAJ 51.16 0.21 14.01 47.36 39.64 50.49 46.79
Table 9: Fuel source for heating system in questioned households per individual years
Preglednica 9: Viri kuriva za kurilno napravo v anketiranih gospodinjstvih po posameznih letih
Year 
Leto 
Own forest  
Lasten gozd 
Foreign forest 
Tuj gozd
Unorganized market 
Neorganiziran trg 
Supplier-Dealer 
Dobavitelj-Trgovec Salamon. oglas.
Others  
Drugo
2003 70.5% 3.3% 14.8% 4.9% 0.0% 6.6%
2004 63.5% 8.1% 16.2% 10.8% 0.0% 0.0%
2005 54.8% 8.3% 16.7% 19.0% 0.0% 1.2%
2006 44.2% 6.9% 14.7% 31.2% 1.2% 1.4%
TOGETHER / 
SKUPAJ 51.2% 6.9% 15.2% 23.9% 0.7% 1.8%
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 69
despite the fact that the share is significantly decreasing
due to suppliers and pellet merchants.
It is still characteristic of the Slovene wood fuel 
trade that in 74.3% the costs of transport and delivery are 
the responsibility of the households; in 22.8%, the price 
of wood biomass already includes these costs, a small 
share (2.5%) of transport and delivery costs of wood 
biomass are paid separately. The latter speaks in favour 
of the important self-mobilizing capability of households 
to arrange the transport and delivery of the heating fuel 
themselves.
With the segment of sales research (Table 10), when 
considering the possibilities of questioned households 
offering personally attained wood biomass on the market, 
we reached the conclusion that as many as 52.9% of 
households could offer forest chips on the market. A smaller 
share of the households (31.1%) is capable of offering 
additional quantities of chunkwood. This fact proves that 
the segment of forest chips and chunkwood still offers a 
lot of unexplored options and market possibilities.
The current relationship regarding wood fuel 
partially explains the fact that the supply of this source 
never presented any bigger problems, at least not on a 
higher scale. It is a fact that the supply of firewood in the
“grey” and “black” markets has always been conducted 
undisturbed, even in periods of the largest deficiency of
other energy sources. 
6.4 Promotion
6.4 Promocija
Studies for the purpose of planning promotional 
activities are necessary in market operations considering 
that substantial funds are spent in this field. The studies for
the purpose of promotional activities are mainly focused 
on specific aspects with the aim of gaining answers to the
following questions:
1. What is the cost of promotion regarding the region 
and form of the promotion?
2. What are the specific characteristics and benefits
we need to stress in the promotion?
3. What is the best combination of existing media for 
our product?
4. How successful were promotional campaigns in the 
past regarding the consumer?
In the segment of research of promotional activities, 
we initially identified thekeysourcesof thefirst information
on financial support for purchasing a heating system in
the questioned households (Table 11) and discovered 
a significant role of fitters and sales people (27.4%) and
friends and acquaintances (26.4%) when receiving the first
information. The latter is an eloquent proof of the fact that 
more than half of the first information on financial support
for the purchase of wood biomass boiler is transferred 
orally.
The general estimate of the information source 
and information on possibilities and conditions of 
Table 10: Possibilities of questioned households to supply own acquired wood biomass to the market
Preglednica 10: Možnosti ponudbe lastno pridobljene lesne biomase anketiranih gospodinjstev na trg
Wood biomass  
Lesna biomasa 
We could 
Bi lahko 
We can't  
Ne moremo 
We wouldn't 
Ne bi 
We don't produce WB 
LB ne pridobivamo 
Chunkwood / Polena 31.1% 23.2% 25.9% 19.6%
Pellets / Peleti 0.0% 4.7% 1.6% 93.8%
Forest chips / Sekanci 52.9% 17.1% 17.1% 11.4%
TOGETHER / SKUPAJ 26.7% 18.2% 19.3% 35.4%
Table 11: First information source of financial support for purchasing heating system per individual wood biomass
type in questioned households
Preglednica 11: Vir prve informacije o finančni vzpodbudi za nakup kurilne naprave v anketiranih gospodinjstvih po
vrstah lesne biomase
Wood biomass 
Lesna biomasa 
Printed media 
Tiskani mediji 
Web page 
Spletna stran 
TV or radio TV 
ali radio 
 Brochure 
Prospekt 
Friend–Acquaintance 
Prijatelj-Znanec 
Don't know Ne 
vem 
Expert 
Strokovnjak 
Fitter–Salesman 
Inštalater- Prodajalec 
Chunkwood 
Polena 17.4% 9.3% 1.9% 6.3% 28.9% 0.5% 8.2% 27.5%
Pellets 
Peleti 18.0% 17.2% 3.9% 4.7% 22.7% 0.8% 9.4% 23.4%
Forest chips 
Sekanci 24.3% 7.1% 2.9% 5.7% 20.0% 1.4% 4.3% 34.3%
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ 18.4% 10.8% 2.5% 5.8% 26.4% 0.7% 8.0% 27.4%
70            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
wood biomass use among the questioned households is, 
according to our study, considered suitable in as much as 
75%, as very suitable in over 10%, as unsuitable in 11% 
and as unavailable in 3.5% of the households.
Table 12 gives us a unique insight into the visibility 
and activity of the organisations in the field of wood biomass
use where the households chose the Sector for Activities 
of Efficient Use and Renewable Energy Sources (AEUE)
and Slovenia Forest Service (SFS). The latter is the most 
recognisable with its vast network of district foresters if 
we exclude AEUE as the organization giving the financial
supports. The Energy Restructuring Agency, Chamber of 
Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia (FFCS), Slovenian 
Forestry Institute (SFI) and the Global Environmental 
Fund (GEF) play only a smaller role.
Table 12: Most recognisible and active organizations 
in wood biomass use per years among questioned 
households
Preglednica 12: Najbolj prepoznavne in dejavne 
organizacije na področju rabe lesne biomase med 
anketiranimi gospodinjstvi po letih
Year 
Leto 
SFS 
ZGS
ERA 
APE
AEUE 
AURE
SFI 
GIS
FFCS 
KGZS GEF
2003 62.3% 13.1% 45.9% 9.8% 11.5% 11.5%
2004 43.2% 12.2% 67.6% 1.4% 14.9% 8.1%
2005 50.0% 13.1% 59.5% 2.4% 17.9% 2.4%
2006 39.3% 13.6% 66.5% 7.5% 11.0% 6.1%
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ 43.9% 13.3% 63.4% 6.2% 12.6% 6.4%
We can use the data in Table 13 to assess the success 
of promotional activities and to determine the use of 
financial support. It is clearly evident that the change to
wood biomass heating is the most extensive with heating 
oil. 
Table 13: Ways of heating in questioned households prior 
to purchasing new heating system
Preglednica 13: Načini ogrevanja v anketiranih 
gospodinjstvih pred nakupom nove kurilne naprave
Natural 
gas 
Plin
Heating oil  
Kurilno olje
Coal 
Premog
Wood 
biomass 
Lesna 
biomasa
Electricity 
Elektrika
WBDH 
DOLB
Shares 
Deleži 4.6% 47.6% 5.0% 63.7% 3.7% 0.7%
It is therefore necessary to place special attention 
to the search and promotion of our circumstances and the 
state of a suitable technology of preparation and use of 
wood fuel, so that we can choose a combination of media, 
which can reach the segment of the households with the 
lowest possible cost.
6.5 Control
6.5 Kontrola
When conducting market research, we must not 
forget the control, which will enable us to get an insight 
into the results of the previous work. And so the following 
questions need to be answered in order to achieve the set 
sales goals.
1. What is the existent sale and share of our product 
in the common market and in specific geographical
areas? The important segments of our customers?
2. Are we covering all the markets and geographical 
regions in accordance with our expectations?
3. What do the existing and potential consumers or 
distributors think of us?
4. How is our product accepted? Is the plan to launch 
the product being realized?
Table 14 gives us a good insight into the product 
shares in the common market and it places chunkwood at 
the top, followed by pellets and forest chips. 
Table 14: Shares of individual wood biomass type in 
returned questionnaires in percentage
Preglednica 14: Deleži kuriv oziroma posamezne vrste 
lesne biomase v vrnjenih anketnih vprašalnikih vzorca, 
izraženi v %
Wood biomass 
Lesna biomasa
Y. / L. 
2003
Y. / L.  
2004
Y. / L. 
2005
Y. / L. 
2006
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ
Chunkwood 
Polena 72.1% 56.8% 72.6% 63.6% 65.0%
Pellets 
Peleti 6.6% 9.5% 14.3% 30.3% 22.7%
Forest chips 
Sekanci 21.3% 33.8% 13.1% 6.1% 12.4%
In order to succeed in the market, we of course need 
to determine important segments of our customers, at 
least regarding the average age (Table 15), age (Table 16), 
education (Table 17) and status structure of the reference 
persons (Table 18).
Table 15: Reference individual's (main decision holder) 
average age in questioned households, which affects the 
choice of heating system per individual wood biomass 
type
Preglednica 15: Povprečna starost referenčne osebe v 
anketiranih gospodinjstvih oziroma glavnega nosilca 
odločitve za izbiro kurilne naprave po vrstah lesne 
biomase
Chunkwood 
Polena
Pellets 
Peleti
Forest chips 
Sekanci
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ 44 years / let 43 years / let 44 years / let 44 years / let 
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 71
Table 16: Reference individuals' age structure in 
questioned households per chosen age groups
Preglednica 16: Starostna struktura referenčnih oseb 
oziroma glavnega nosilca odločitve za izbiro kurilne 
naprave na LB v gospodinjstvih po izbranih starostnih 
razredih
<=30 
years let 
31-50 
years let
51-70 
years let 
>70 
years let 
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ
Number 
Število 55 368 136 6 565
Shares 
Deleži 9.7% 65.1% 24.1% 1.1%
As far as planning future promotional activities 
is concerned, the attention needs to be directed mainly 
towards people of the age group between 31 and 50 years, 
with a secondary school education and the status of an 
active inhabitant, since these people represent the major 
part of wood biomass users in the questioned households. 
Table 17: Reference individuals' educational structure
Preglednica 17: Izobrazbena struktura referenčnih oseb 
oziroma glavnega nosilca odločitve za izbiro kurilne 
naprave na lesno biomaso
Without 
primary 
school 
Brez OŠ 
Primary 
school 
Osnovna 
šola 
Secondary 
school 
Srednja 
šola 
University 
Viš. - Visoka 
izobrazba 
Sum 
Skupaj 
Number 
Število 8 43 345 169 565
Table 18: Reference individuals' status structure in 
households per individual wood biomass type
Preglednica 18: Statusna struktura referenčnih oseb 
gospodinjstev po vrstah lesne biomase
Wood biomass 
Lesna biomasa
Active inhabitant 
Aktiven preb. 
Unemployed 
Brezposelen 
Pensioner 
Upokojenec
Others 
Drugo
Chunkwood 
Polena 86.6% 1.4% 10.6% 1.4%
Pellets 
Peleti 84.4% 1.6% 12.5% 1.6%
Forest chips 
Sekanci 82.9% 0.0% 11.4% 5.7%
TOGETHER 
SKUPAJ 85.7% 1.2% 11.2% 1.9%
Due to different demands, needs and environmental 
issues, people with university education or higher 
education and pensioners represent an important segment 
of wood biomass users. 
With decisions at the sale we cannot ignore the 
structure of wood area groups of those questioned 
households, which acquire wood biomass from their own 
woods (Table 19), since the latter is of key importance, at 
least with chunkwood, when determining and measuring 
the market segment.
The structure of forest area tells us that most 
households, which acquire wood biomass from their own 
forests, own a forest area of 1 to 5 hectares. The average 
Slovene privately owned forest property of 2.65 ha can 
also be found within this interval (MEDVED 2003). 
As part of the control segment, we were also interested 
in the consumers’ opinion. Our study shows that expert 
help, counselling and designing the new heating system 
was described as suitable by 60.5% of the questioned 
households, as very suitable by 16.1%, as not suitable by 
11.3%, as not available by 4.4%, and as not necessary by 
7.6% of the questioned households.
We also established that the heating system 
completely met the questioned households’ expectations 
in most of the cases (79.3%), but did so only partially in 
19.3% of the cases. 1.4% of the questioned households said 
that the heating system did not meet their expectations. The 
latter is mainly due to a deficient maintenance service and
resolving warranty claims by the company Ferotherm.
We obtained slightly worse results when determining 
the current offer of the wood biomass suppliers in the 
questioned households (Table 20). The participants 
namely rated the offer as unorganized (25.1%) and even as 
not suitable in 13.8%.
Table 20: Wood biomass current supply evaluation in 
questioned households
Preglednica 20: Ocena trenutne ponudbe dobaviteljev 
lesne biomase v anketiranih gospodinjstvih
Unorgani-zed 
Neorganizi-
rana
Not suitable 
Neprimerna
Suitable 
Primerna
Very 
suitable 
Zelo 
primerna
Not 
necessary 
Nepotrebna
Shares 
Deleži 25.1% 13.8% 55.9% 2.7% 2.3%
Table 19: Structure of forest area (in hectares) per individual wood area groups of those questioned households, which 
acquire wood biomass from own woods
Preglednica 19: Struktura površine gozda (v ha) po posameznih razredih tistih gospodinjstev, ki lesno biomaso 
pridobivajo iz lastnega gozda
<=1 hectare  
ha >1 - 5 hectare ha
>5 - 10 hectare 
ha
>10 - 30 hectare 
ha
>30 - 100 hectare 
ha
>100 hectare 
ha
SKUPAJ 
TOGETHER
Shares / Deleži 5.2% 39.6% 24.0% 25.3% 5.6% 0.3% 100.0%
Number / Število 15 114 69 73 16 1 288
72            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
In the final stages of the study, we contacted the most
frequent pellet suppliers or merchants in the questioned 
households (Figure 2) and established that the acceptability 
of the pellets among the consumers is the highest in the 
company Enerles in Pivka and Profiles in Razdrto.
Figure 2: Most frequent pellets suppliers in questioned 
households
Slika 2: Najpogostejši dobavitelji oziroma trgovci pelet v 
anketiranih gospodinjstvih 
Figure 2 clearly shows that Slovene pellet 
manufacturers represent 48.9% of the market share, 
followed by Slovene suppliers and shopping centres with 
18.5%, and that the smallest share of 4.7% is attributed 
to manufacturers and suppliers from the neighbouring 
Austria. 
7 Conclusions
7 Zaključki
The biggest potential in wood fuel trade in Slovenia 
represent the households where we have limited data and 
estimation (SURS 2006) on the total use of wood biomass, 
and this is true despite the fact that the households use 
almost 40% of all roundwood from the forest (KRAJNC, 
N. / PIŠKUR, M. 2006).
Free trade of wood biomass and an enlarged number 
of buyers consequently set a gradual forming of an 
information system regarding supply and demand. Both 
the providers as well as the customers need to be informed 
as to the possibilities of purchase or sale. We cannot expect 
that individual providers and customers will successfully 
monitor the changes in wood fuel trade on their own.
The research into wood fuel trade is gaining new 
dimensions. Because forestry is a long-term production 
activity, global marketing presents a very important factor, 
i.e. monitoring global market movement and its tendencies. 
The operating level of market research must therefore 
serve direct business decisions and enable adaptations to 
conjectural movements in the market. 
When researching the wood fuel trade with the 
recipients of financial support for the purchase of wood
biomass boilers, which was aimed at satisfying existent 
and potential consumers of wood biomass, we reached the 
following conclusions:
1.  We discovered an almost 7.5-times increase in the 
number of new pellet boilers and an almost 3-times 
increase in the number of new chunkwood boilers 
with the questioned households in individual 
apartment houses in Slovenia. The latter is 
indicative of a steeply increasing trend in the use of 
wood biomass.
2.  As one of the three studied types of fuel in wood fuel 
market, chunkwood holds the dominant position 
(65%), followed by pellets (22.7%) and forest chips 
(12.4%). All three types of wood biomass have a 
positive and rapidly increasing trend of use. Also 
an insight into the position of wood biomass for 
the whole of Slovenia reveals that wood biomass 
is emerging as the only heating source with the 
questioned households. These findings indirectly
indicate good future development possibilities in 
wood fuel trade in Slovenia.
3.  With just under 95% participants we estimate that 
the trend of wood biomass use will increase in the 
future.
4. The questioned households stated in 52.6% the 
increase in the cost of other rival energy sources in 
the last research year (2006) as the key reason for 
the decision for wood biomass heating. The switch 
to wood biomass heating was the most extensive 
with heating oil. 
5.  The average power of pellet heating systems is 
24 kW, 25 kW with chunkwood and 46 kW with 
forest chips. The average duration of a heating 
season is within the interval of 6.2 and 6.5 months. 
The average size of a heated living area in analysed 
households is expressed in m2 and it amounts to a 
surprising surface of 198 m2. 
6.  The estimated use of individual type of wood biomass 
per m2 of heated living area amounts to: 0.1 prm/m2 
for chunkwood, 0.22 m3/m2 for forest chips and 
29.34 kg per m2 of a heated living area in the 
heating season.
7.  The price of pellets has risen considerably, especially 
in 2006. We can find the reasons in different time
of pellet purchase and a consensual price rise of 
the pellets by the merchants or manufacturers. No 
significant price rice was noted with chunkwood and
forest chips, since the process of determining prices 
is still a very personal, co-dependent and locally 
conditioned relationship between the customer and 
the provider and a more common form of heating in 
the suburban and rural areas.
8.  The four-year study of the average shows that an own 
forest is still the key source of firewood in more than
half of the questioned households. As many as 37.8% 
of the questioned households use beech chunkwood 
Enarles, Pivka
25.2%
Gipo, KP
12.6%
Gozd Ljubljana
0.7%
Merkur
5.2%
Profiles, Razdrto
23.7%
Stadlober AUT 
Avstrija
4.4%
AUT /Avstrija
3.0%
Others /Drugi
25.2%
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 73
as firewood.
9.  When considering the possibility of offering wood 
biomass attained by the questioned households 
themselves on the market, we reached a conclusion 
that as many as 52.9% of households could offer 
forest chips and 31.1% of households are capable of 
offering additional quantities of chunkwood. And 
so there is a lot of unexplored options and market 
possibilities in the segment of forest chips and 
chunkwood sale.
10.  The key source of information regarding the first
information on financial support for the purchase
of a heating system in the questioned households 
represent the fitters and sales personnel (27.4%),
and friends and acquaintances (26.4%). More than 
half of the first information on financial support is
transferred from mouth to mouth. 
11.  A general estimate of the information sources and 
information on possibilities and conditions of wood 
biomass use is considered as suitable in 75% of all 
questioned households. 
12.  The most recognisable and active organisation 
in the field of wood biomass use is the Slovenia
Forest Service, if we exclude the AEUE as the 
organization giving the financial supports. The
Energy Restructuring Agency, Chamber of 
Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia (FFCS), 
Slovenian Forestry Institute (SFI) and the Global 
Environmental Fund (GEF) play only a smaller role 
according to the closed questionnaire.
13.  The average age of the reference person in the 
questioned households or the main decision holder 
for the choice of wood biomass heating system is 
44 years. More than 65% of the reference persons 
are found in the group between 31 and 50 years, 61% 
of all the participants finished secondary school.
The active residents in our study are represented 
as a vast majority with 85.7%, with retired people 
representing 11.2%. 
14.  Expert assistance, counselling and design of the 
new heating system was rated as suitable in 60.5% 
of the questioned households, as very suitable 
in 16.1%, as not suitable in 11.3%, not available 
in 4.4%, and even as not necessary in 7.6%. We 
established that the heating systems fully met the 
questioned households’ expectations in most of the 
cases (79.3%).
15.  The vast majority of the questioned households, 
which gain wood biomass from their own forest, 
own a forest surface between 1 and 2 ha (39.6%). 
49.3% of the households own a forest ranging from 
5 ha to 30 ha.
16.  The current offer of the wood biomass suppliers 
has been rated as unorganized in 25.1% of the 
questioned households and even as not suitable in 
13.8%.
17.  The acceptability of the pellets among the questioned 
households is the highest in the company Enerles in 
Pivka and Profiles in Razdrto.
8 Summary
In the survey of wood fuel trade among individual 
residential premises in Slovenia, we devoted our attention 
to market management oriented to the existent as well as 
potential consumers' satisfaction. Problems are solved 
by marketing-mix elements: product, price, place and 
promotion.
Consumers' needs are attained by the above 
mentioned marketing-mix methods: product making and 
product development, a widely acceptable price, well 
organized sale and satisfactory promotion. 909 households 
took part in the questionnaire; they are the financial support
recipients for boiler purchasing from 2003 to 2006, and 
these households are our survey data source. 565 closed 
questionnaires, which contained 22 questions each, have 
been returned by mail and these questionnaires represent 
our survey pattern.
The survey at more levels shows that the vast majority 
of households included in the questionnaire are in favour 
of wider wood biomass use in Slovenia. A big increase in 
new chunkwood and pellets boilers in 2006 also confirms
this statement.
Price increase of other competitive sources of energy 
has become the key reason for individual households̀  
decision to embark on wood biomass heating. Switch over 
to wood biomass heating concerns mainly fuel oil.
The survey also states average power of wood biomass 
heating systems (pellets 24 kW, chunkwood 25 kW, forest 
chips 46 kW), average duration of the heating season 
(6.3 months), average size of heated residential area 
(198 m²),  and individual type of wood biomass consumption 
per m² of heated residential area (chunkwood 0.1 prm/m², 
forest chips 0.22 m³/m², pellets 29.34 kg/m²).
Since chunkwood can be bought off the market at 
considerably lower prices or even free of charge if we 
prepare firewood ourselves, we had some problems in
price assessment as the number of people who purchase 
chunkwood from wood fuel trade is extremely low. There 
is no evident price deviation in forest chips, since prices in 
this segment are determined by buyer-seller relationship 
and above all by locally spread form and ways of heating. 
Pellets price has increased rapidly in 2006, which is also 
visible in pellets price range in Slovenian regions (from 
0.20 to 0.26 EUR/kg). 
Own woods still represent the most important heating 
source in households that took part in the questionnaire. 
In 37.8% of the households, chunkwood beech tree 
prevails. In wood fuel trade, chunkwood prevails (65%), 
then pellets with 22.7%. while forest chips are last with 
74            Zbornik gozdarstva in lesarstva 83
12.4%. These data clearly indicate that there are numerous 
market opportunities hidden in the segment of sale of 
additional quantities of own forest chips and chunkwood. 
Most households, which get wood biomass from their own 
forests, have forests ranging from 1 to 5 hectares in size 
(39.6%). There are 49.3% households, whose forest size 
ranges from 5 to 30 hectares.
In the promotion segment, the survey has established 
that more than a half of first information on financial
support for boiler purchasing is transferred verbally. 
General estimation on data source about wood biomass 
use possibilities and conditions among households is 
considered suitable in 75% cases. The Slovene Forest 
Service is considered to be the most noticeable and active 
organization in the segment of wood biomass use.
When estimating how satisfied the consumers are
with professional help, advise giving and projecting a 
new heating system, it was found to be suitable in 60.5% 
cases. In 79.3% cases, the heating system has fulfilled all
expectations. Current supply of wood biomass has been 
estimated as unorganized in 25.1% cases, as inappropriate 
in 13.8% cases. We also attempted to establish the 
dominating pellet suppliers, and found out these are 
Enerles from Pivka and Profiles from Razdrto.
When determining our buyers' important segments 
we also took into consideration the average age as well as 
reference individuals' age, education and status structure.
9 Povzetek
Pri raziskavi trga lesne biomase med gospodinjstvi 
individualnih stanovanjskih hiš v Sloveniji se posvečamo 
tržnemu poslovanju (marketingu), ki je usmerjeno v 
zadovoljevanje obstoječih in potencialnih potrošnikov. 
Probleme rešujemo z elementi “marketing-mixa” (Product, 
Price, Place in Promotion).
Zadovoljevanje potreb potrošnika dosežemo s prej 
omenjeno kombinacijo “marketing-mixa”: z ustvarjanjem 
in razvojem proizvoda, ceno, ki bo sprejemljiva čim 
širšemu krogu uporabnikov, z dobro organizirano prodajo 
in ob pomoči zadovoljive promocije.
Izvor podatkov raziskave predstavlja 909 anketiranih 
prejemnikov finančnih vzpodbud za nakup kotla na
lesno biomaso v letih od 2003 do vključno 2006. Vzorec 
raziskovanja predstavlja 565 vrnjenih zaprtih anketnih 
vprašalnikov z 22 vprašanji, ki smo jih pošiljali po pošti.
Raziskava na več ravneh ugotavlja, da so anketiranci 
v veliki večini naklonjeni širši rabi lesne biomase v 
Sloveniji. Na slednje kaže tudi zelo velik skok števila 
novih kotlov na pelete in polena v letu 2006.
Rast cen drugih konkurenčnih energentov je v letu 
2006 postal ključni razlog pri odločitvi za ogrevanje na 
lesno biomaso posameznega gospodinjstva. Prehajanje na 
ogrevanje z lesno biomaso je največje pri kurilnem olju.
Raziskava ugotavlja tudi povprečno moč kurilnih 
naprav na lesno biomaso (peleti 24 kW, polena 25 kW, 
sekanci 46 kW), povprečno dolžino ogrevalne sezone 
(6,3 meseca), povprečno velikost ogrevane stanovanjske 
površine (198 m2) ter porabo posamezne vrste lesne 
biomase na m2 ogrevane stanovanjske površine (0,1 prm/
m2 za polena, 0,22 m3/m2 za sekance in 29,34 kg/m2 za 
pelete).
Ker je polena mogoče kupiti mimo trga po občutno 
nižjih cenah, kot so na tržišču, dobiti pa jih je možno tudi 
zastonj, če si drva izdelamo sami, smo imeli v segmentu 
ugotavljanja cene polen težave, ker je število ljudi, ki so 
odvisni od nakupa polen na trgu lesne biomase, izjemno 
majhno. Pri sekancih o večji razliki med cenami ne 
moremo govoriti, saj gre pri določevanju cen v tem primeru 
še vedno za oseben in soodvisen odnos med kupcem in 
prodajalcem ter predvsem za lokalno zastopano obliko in 
način ogrevanja. Pri peletih je cena predvsem v letu 2006 
močno poskočila, na kar kaže tudi velik razpon cene pelet 
(od 0.20 do 0.26 EUR/kg) po slovenskih regijah. 
Lasten gozd je še vedno najpomembnejši vir 
goriva v anketiranih gospodinjstvih. Bukev je v 37,8 % 
gospodinjstev, ki se ogrevajo na polena, prevladujoča 
drevesna vrsta. Polena imajo tudi sicer prevladujoč položaj 
(65 %) na trgu lesne biomase, sledijo peleti (22,7 %) in 
sekanci z 12,4 % deležem. Tudi zato je v segmentu prodaje 
dodatnih količin lastnih sekancev in polen gospodinjstev 
skritih še veliko tržnih priložnosti. Največ anketiranih 
gospodinjstev, ki lesno biomaso pridobivajo iz lastnega 
gozda, ima gozd v razredu od 1 do 5 ha (39,6 %). V razponu 
od 5 ha do 30 ha pa najdemo 49,3 % gospodinjstev.
V segmentu promocije raziskava ugotavlja, da se 
več kot polovico prvih informacij o finančni vzpodbudi
za nakup kotla na lesno biomaso prenaša s promocijo od 
ust do ust. Splošna ocena virov podatkov in informacij o 
možnostih in pogojih rabe lesne biomase med anketiranimi 
gospodinjstvi velja za primerno v ¾ primerov. Za najbolj 
prepoznavno in dejavno organizacijo na področju rabe 
lesne biomase so anketiranci izbrali Zavod za gozdove 
Slovenije.
Pri ugotavljanju zadovoljstva potrošnikov s 
strokovno pomočjo, svetovanjem ter projektiranjem nove 
kurilne naprave ugotavljamo, da je v 60,5 % primerna in 
da je kurilna naprava pri 79,3 % anketiranih upravičila 
vsa pričakovanja. Trenutno ponudbo dobaviteljev lesne 
biomase so anketiranci ocenili kot neorganizirano kar 
v 25,1 %, v 13,8 % pa celo kot neprimerno. Pogledali 
smo tudi najpogostejše dobavitelje oziroma trgovce pelet 
ter ugotovili, da je sprejetost med potrošniki največja 
pri podjetju Enerles iz Pivke in podjetju Profiles iz
Razdrtega.
Pri določanju segmentov naših kupcev ugotavljamo 
še povprečno starost, starostno strukturo in izobrazbeno 
strukturo ter statusno strukturo referenčnih oseb. 
Leskovec, B., Winkler, I.: Inclusion of consumers in the forming of wood fuel trade market on the pattern ... 75
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