A UK Far Eastern plywood agent has challenged the timber industry to take up increasing supplies of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified product or risk losing additional volumes to European and US markets.
Ian Cartwright, director of Birkenhead-based Hunt Brothers & Co Ltd, said the resistance of buyers to paying a premium for FSC product was not helping to cultivate the certified plywood market.
Hunt Brothers’ FSC CE 2+ plywood supplier, Malaysian company Cymao Plywood Sdn Bhd, is boosting its capacity by 2,000m3 per month from April, with Hunts having first option of the additional volume for the UK market.
Mr Cartwright said demand was healthy for the company’s current FSC-certified monthly 1,200-1,600m3 imports but added that the product’s 10% price premium over standard non-certified Far Eastern plywood, and up to 30% premium compared to Chinese products, seemed to be putting people off.
He said merchanting groups often talked about the need to source FSC product but stopped short because of price.
Mr Cartwright said: “The harsh reality is if you want fully FSC-certified plywood you have to pay the price.
“Unfortunately, full FSC certification is an expensive process and there are no shortcuts in producing this type of professionally managed certified plywood.”
Mr Cartwright said he hoped the short-sightedness of some buyers would not jeopardise the availability of FSC plywood, particularly as demand was likely to increase in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympics.
