The World Bank is betting on Arboreal to push Latin America’s timber industry up the value chain, with the International Finance Corporation and Amsterdam’s ILX Fund splitting a $40 million debt package to back thermally modified wood capacity and circular-economy upgrades at the Tacuarembó plant from 2026. That is according to a joint statement issued in Montevideo on 5 May by IFC’s Manuel Reyes Retana, ILX Chief Executive Manfred Schepers and Arboreal President Matías Abergo, with the project forecast to lift direct employment by 15 per cent and create 185 indirect jobs across 2026 to 2028.
Founded in 2021 by Abergo’s Enkel Group and US investor Mark Crandall through the acquisition of Frutifor Lumber Company, Arboreal operates a 50,000-cubic-metre cross-laminated timber line in northern Uruguay running on 100 per cent FSC-certified Southern Yellow Pine drawn from local plantations. The vertically integrated Tacuarembó operation supplies structural timber, glulam, and CLT panels to the regional and global mass timber market, with sawmilling, CLT, and glulam production all folded into a single facility alongside in-house engineering and project design.
An Arboreal operator monitors production feeds at the Tacuarembó plant control room, integrating sawmilling, CLT and glulam lines that scale under the World Bank package. (Photo Credit: Arboreal)
Pressed on the development impact, Reyes Retana said IFC is backing renewable-resource industries that maximise local value capture and decarbonise construction supply chains across Latin America. “Responsibly managed forest resources can be transformed into high-value-added solutions,” Reyes Retana said.
Schepers, whose Amsterdam-based asset manager mobilises European pension capital into multilateral development bank loans across emerging markets, said the Arboreal package shows how credible certification can attract institutional capital into climate-aligned industrial growth. “Private capital can support nature-positive and climate-aligned industrial growth in emerging markets,” Schepers said.
Arboreal-branded structural timber at the Tacuarembó warehouse, prepared for shipment to the 22 export markets the producer supplies, at 450 containers per month. (Photo Credit: Arboreal)
The 2026 to 2028 project will commission biomass briquette production from sawmill residues whilst delivering processing-plant upgrades, with IFC providing strategic advisory services covering demand analysis, regulatory frameworks and building standards to grow the regional market for engineered wood beams, columns and panels in mid- and high-rise construction. Engineered wood has a significantly lower carbon footprint than concrete and steel at the same structural load, and the building sector accounts for close to 37 per cent of global carbon emissions, according to IFC’s estimates.
Wood Central publisher Jason Ross interviews Arboreal President Matías Abergo at Timber Construct in Melbourne in August 2024 on the Trans-Tasman growth thesis. Footage: @WoodCentralAU.
It comes as Wood Central reported on Arboreal’s Trans-Tasman push, with the Uruguayan producer shipping 450 containers of structural timber every month into 22 export markets and targeting Australia and New Zealand through Global Business Development Manager Guy Jacobson. The Tacuarembó plant runs on near-100 per cent renewable energy, with the manufacturing footprint anchored to the country’s one-million-hectare plantation estate.
Abergo told Wood Central at the 2024 Timber Construct conference in Melbourne that mass timber economics favour high-labour-cost markets across North America and the Trans-Tasman region. “Mass timber adoption will be higher in countries with higher labour costs,” Abergo said.
Arboreal’s Tacuarembó facility remains the only large-scale cross-laminated timber operation in Latin America, with IFC drawing on a record $71.7 billion in fiscal 2025 deployment to private-sector borrowers in developing countries.
Jason Ross, publisher, is a 15-year professional in building and construction, connecting with more than 400 specifiers. A Gottstein Fellowship recipient, he is passionate about growing the market for wood-based information. Jason is Wood Central’s in-house emcee and is available for corporate host and MC services.