Burned by the pump: Why your winter firewood will cost more

Thursday, 9 April 2026

Tayla Anderson, customer service representative at City Firewood, at the company’s Christchurch yard as suppliers warn of higher firewood prices before winter.

Winter is set to cost more for Christchurch households which rely on woodburners, with local firewood suppliers raising prices as diesel costs surge.

City Firewood and Middleton-based Garden Box have both told customers they are lifting prices this month, saying higher diesel costs are flowing through almost every stage of the firewood supply chain, from harvesting and trucking logs to yard operations and home delivery.

About 78,000 Canterbury households - about 30% of all households in the region - use a wood burner as their main form of heating, based on 2023 Census data, underlining how widely any rise in firewood costs could be felt as colder weather approaches.

For City Firewood owner Robbie Harris, the pressure starts well before a load reaches a customer’s woodshed.

“Literally everything to do with firewood is touched by diesel,” Harris said. “If you look at the whole supply chain, you’ve got forestry machines that run on diesel, logging trucks that run on diesel, and then all of our own operations.”

City Firewood in Bishopdale, Christchurch, is increasing its prices due to the rising cost of diesel.

He said City Firewood had increased its delivery fee by $10 and adjusted product prices after costs jumped across its operation. Those pressures included log transport, machinery, lubricants, contractor charges and moving wood between its production and kiln sites.

The squeeze has been especially sharp on hardwoods. Harris said freight on blue gum sourced from Mataura had risen from about $2000 a truckload a month ago to about $4000 this week, making it harder to justify bringing in some higher-cost wood.

Garden Box has also increased prices, saying diesel prices had risen more than 87% since January. Its split pine price is rising 9.5%, from $157.50 to $172.50 a cubic metre, while air-dried gum is rising 13.5%, from $199.50 to $226.50.

About 30% of Canterbury households have a woodburner.

Harris said households should buy early if they could, both to avoid further price rises and to reduce the risk of turning to opportunistic sellers offering wood that was not properly dry.

Delivery times are already stretching as more households move to secure wood before winter.

Harris said customers booking with City Firewood now were facing about a month’s wait for delivery, prompting the business to push harder on yard pick-ups as a faster and cheaper option.

“If you book with us today, we can’t get it to you for a month,” he said.

Harris said March was usually the company’s busiest delivery month, before demand eased slightly through April and May and then picked up again in mid-winter. This year has broken that pattern.

“We’re getting a lot more bookings at this time of year,” he said.

City Firewood customer service representative Tayla Anderson.

Since February, volume was up by about 10% on the same period last year, although he was still weighing how much of that reflected fuel fears, changing market conditions or the closure of other suppliers.

He said City Firewood was trying to keep cheaper options available, including pine and pine cores, while encouraging customers to collect from its yard where possible to avoid delivery charges and reduce waiting times.

“We can service a heap of the market if they’re coming and picking up over the next couple of weeks,” he said.

Supply is adding another layer of pressure. While pine remains relatively available, Harris said hardwoods such as blue gum, macrocarpa and Oregon were tighter, continuing a trend that had been building for several years.

“It’s been a bit of a challenge for us for a few years now, because there’s just not as much of it around any more,” he said.

That has made those woods harder to secure even before diesel costs jumped. With freight now much dearer, sourcing wood from further afield has become far more expensive, particularly for denser hardwoods that already cost more to buy, cut and dry.

Harris said City Firewood would not run out altogether, but the business expected supply to tighten later in the season. In previous years that had meant restrictions on large pick-ups and a greater focus on rationing stock so more customers could still get some wood.

“We basically ration it. We just make sure everyone’s got some,” he said.