Big companies falling foul of EU Timber Regulations

New testing figures from BM TRADA

Some of the UK’s biggest plywood suppliers and retailers are risking falling foul of the EU Timber Regulations, according to new testing figures from BM TRADA.

BM TRADA results show that 50% of wood samples analysed for timber industry and non-timber industry clients since January 2015 were not of the reported species.

The figures follow the National Measurement Office’s (NMO) Chinese plywood enforcement project revealed that, of 16 companies investigated, 14 submitted “insufficient” due diligence systems.

Timber verification is the way forward

Nick Clifford, timber species expert at BM TRADA: “People have suddenly woken up to the fact that they are at risk.It has pushed EUTR right up the list of priorities.What we are finding is that around half of the samples we have tested are not what they are purported to be. They might not be an endangered species, but in many cases, we’ve found a lower value species used in favovur of another.”

Mr Clifford said that the biggest challenges were around the use of eucalyptus and poplar.

One of the big plywood suppliers keeps finding the product is not what it is supposed to be. It is common practice to use poplar as an internal veneer and then another decorative veneer – from a different species – on the outside to improve the aesthetics.

While this would not necessarily be taken as evidence of underhand activity, suppliers have a responsibility under EUTR to provide the correct claims.”

It means that companies are now taking EUTR and due diligence more seriously by not just relying on paperwork and carrying out timber species verification testing.

Timber species verification can be used to assess whether timber either in its ‘raw’ form or when manufactured into a product is the species it is claimed to be in the accompanying document. Timber species verification provides a useful additional tool when used as part of an organisation’s due diligence system.

From an EUTR perspective all the species contained in a product or item must be included on the accompanying documentation, and can therefore be subject to scrutiny.

BM TRADA are able to examine timber samples to confirm whether they are made from the wood claimed in accompanying documentation provided by your supplier.

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High Wycombe,
Buckinghamshire,
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