The Barking-based company responded to Greenpeace’s claims against the firm and its owner Alchemy Partners by stating that it was not currently placing orders for bintangor-faced Chinese poplar plywood.

Glenn McCardle, MLM chief executive, said: “The vast majority of our first-hand purchases of bintangor-faced Chinese plywood have been purchased from Timber Trade Federation (TTF) member agencies.

“All MLM’s direct second-hand purchases of hardwood-faced poplar plywood have been via TTF-member importers who committed last autumn to both the TTF executive and Greenpeace that they have suspended purchasing of bintangor-faced Chinese plywood.”

Mr McCardle said MLM did not knowingly buy any plywood which was illegally logged and that mill visits were regularly undertaken by the company’s management team in an effort to validate supply sources and check the working conditions of mill employees.

&#8220All MLM’s direct second-hand purchases of hardwood-faced poplar plywood have been via TTF-member importers who committed last autumn to both the TTF executive and Greenpeace that they have suspended purchasing of bintangor-faced Chinese plywood”

Glenn McCardle, MLM chief executive

A Greenpeace delegation and PNG landowner Brian Baring met TTF members on March 29 to discuss the sourcing of alternative plywood products.

TTF chief executive John White said members had been looking at alternative plywood solutions since agreeing to suspend purchases of bintangor-faced Chinese products.

He said the TTF has engaged the Tropical Forest Trust to look at the situation, with the possibility of some scoping work in China, similar to that undertaken in Indonesia.

Belinda Fletcher, Greenpeace campaigner, told TTJ that the group could not forensically trace bintangor-faced plywood back to PNG but argued that most bintangor used by Chinese mills came from PNG.