There is genuine competition between arms production and the book market for raw materials – the publisher explains how book prices depend on gunpowder manufacturing

Ukraine and global book market prices are up due, in part, to rising paper costs. However, this year, there’s another factor affecting the price formation to blame—an increase in world military expenditure and arms production, since the pulp needed for paper manufacture is also a basic raw ingredient needed for gunpowder.

Oleksandr Krasovytskyy, writer, Editor in Chief of Folio Publishers, made this report, at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. 

“That is, prices have significantly spiked, but they have risen throughout the world market due to rising paper prices. And we can understand that in addition to the levers that influenced this, a new lever will yet to come this year, and prices for books and paper will increase again. This is because the pulp that goes into, say, diapers and books is also used for gunpowder. And the war production growth around the world competes with the book publishing industry for raw materials. And we know that the growth in pulp production is not enough for either part of the market, and all this is gradually leading to problems in the market in physical retail, with the availability of paper,” explained Krasovytskyy. 

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