State-owned forestry enterprises are important elements of the forestry economy in China. The operational efficiency of such enterprises depends on technological progress and other input factors. Total factor productivity (TFP) is an important means to evaluate the efficiency of technical elements. The growth of production efficiency can be classified into efficiency variation and technical variation. The TFP of 135 key state-owned forestry enterprises in the northeast, southwest, and northwest regions of China in 2001–2011 was measured through Malmquist–data envelopment analysis. The technological progress of the state-owned forestry enterprises positively affected TFP variation, but technical efficiency only slightly increased and scale efficiency even negatively affected TFP variation. The average growth rate of TFP in the northwest region is higher than those in the northeast and southwest regions. The Western Development Program of China increasingly contributes to the economic development of western areas. The increasing investment of the government in science and technology accelerates the development of forestry economy in China.
