38 | Sector Focus: Tropical Timber
SUMMARY
■Vandecasteele is looking to add more secondary species to its stock
■It is growing its range in further processed, value-added products
■The company intends to be trading only in certified timber by 2025
REGS CHALLENGE RISING TO ECO
The EU Deforestation Regulation will put the European tropical timber trade to the test, but Vandecasteele sees potential positive outcomes
Today’s European tropical timber trade is a demanding environment. Sales are down over the last 18 months and prices have followed. New moves on the timber sector’s sustainability performance are set to add to the pressures. A further batch of key tropical species are being listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) – some controversially. They will subsequently require added evidence of responsible sourcing. Then there’s the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) coming into force in 2024. This demands proof that so-called Forest and Eco-System Risk Commodities (FERCs), including timber and wood products, are not implicated in deforestation, or the more nebulous forest degradation. That proof includes provision of geolocation co-ordinates for the ‘plot of land’ where commodities originate.
Belgian-based international timber trader
Vandecasteele does not downplay the market challenges. However, it does sees the commercial situation changing and also ultimately the tropical sector benefiting from regulatory developments that, it believes, will add to the trade’s sustainability assurance in an increasingly environmentally aware market.
Export manager Geneviève Standaert acknowledges that, after two exceptional years from 2020 to 2022, the squeeze in the tropical timber market has been significant. “Over the last year demand has been weak, there’s been less volume and consequently prices have dropped,” she said. However, she feels a corner is being turned. “Even if demand does not come back immediately, we expect prices are now at their lowest level as suppliers have diminished production volumes and offers are scarce.”
She added that Vandecasteele has also been looking to strengthen its commercial position, while at the same time further underpinning its sustainability credentials, by developing its tropical offer. For instance, it is looking to add more secondary species to its stock. This is seen as not only diversifying its range, but making environmental certification more viable for the long-term, as more secondary species sales mean more income for forest managers from a given certified area. “When a supplier goes for certification, they make a very serious investment in the future management of the forest, not just economically, but in maintaining the forest as forest 20, 30 or 40 years ahead, and even longer,” said Ms Standaert. Vandecasteele is also growing its range in further processed, value-added products such as laminated, finger-jointed scantlings and thermo-treated timber. It now carries a 15,000m3
stock of the latter, including ayous Above: The squeeze in the tropical timber market has been significant TTJ | November/December 2023 |
www.ttjonline.com
and fraké, as well as European ash, poplar, redwood, whitewood and radiata pine. “We are also carrying a ready stock in cladding profiles in alternative tropical species, such as red louro, as an addition to the better known species such as iroko, padouk and afrormosia,” said Ms Standaert. The company has additionally set itself the objective of becoming the ‘European ambassador for sustainable timber’, with a target date of 2025 to be trading only in certified timber. “We are on track for our goal,” said Ms Standaert. “We are continuously supporting suppliers towards this transition by investing in external auditing and buying a full range of species and dimensions. In Brazil, for example, the volume of certified timber is continuously growing and our own forest
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