WELSH FARMERS are being encouraged to consider co-operating to supply the growing market for domestic fuel pellets.

Coed Cymru, which promotes the management of broadleaf woodlands and the use of locally grown timber, has done extensive trials using a basic small scale animal feed pelleter costing £10,000.

Waste wood and specially grown bio-fuel crops like miscanthus and short rotation willow have been turned into good quality fuel pellets that could replace imports from Scandinavia and France.

David Jenkins, Coed Cymru’s director, claims that there is a huge potential in Wales as a recent survey revealed that there is almost 1400t of suitable dry material in the county of Powys alone.

“Indexed against current oil prices this could bring £160,000 of additional income, and this could be increased 10 fold if there was an economic way of drying the rest of the available waste timber that is lying around.”

For a total investment of around £20,000 in a material shredder and a pelleter, groups of farmers could start supplying the fast growing number of users of domestic and industrial multi-fuel stoves.

The trials, sponsored by the Welsh Development Agency and several other Welsh organisations, had succeeded in scaling down the equipment normally used for making wood pellets.

He hoped that the idea would appeal to the 100 small saw milling businesses in Wales, many of which were linked to managed farm woodlands.