French barrel manufacturers and affiliated traders dominated the oak sale organized by Hessen-Forst in Groß-Gerau. Although there is a new agreement regarding the barrique wine trade between the EU and the US, the French barrel manufacturers’ demand for oak logs continues to be high.

Because of the smaller dimensions and lower qualities offered this year, the average price went down to 401 €/m3 (2005: 414 €/m3) during the Groß-Gerau auction. The number of buyers rose from 21 to 30. The highest price was paid for an oak log from Wiesbaden (length: 8.8 m, middle diameter: 76 cm), which was sold for 1,282 €/m3 or 5,115 € for the whole log.