Finnforest said it had bought plywood from the supplier in good faith as FSC-certified and was due to supply full shipments to Wickes Building Supplies.
Both Finnforest and Greenpeace requested the FSC certifier, Scientific Certification Systems, to contact the mill, which has resulted in the suspension of its FSC chain of custody certificate until major corrective actions are addressed.
All contaminated stock has been quarantined and no future containers of the plywood will be accepted. Finnforest has also frozen all payments to the supplier.
“With the support of Greenpeace and other timber traders, we acted promptly to ensure that this issue was dealt with quickly and easily, said Finnforest UK managing director Rod Allan. “For the good of the timber trade it is important to work together.”
“We worked hard with Finnforest to get FSC plywood to the market, so it’s disappointing that we should suffer this setback,” said Wickes managing director Jeremy Bird.
“We are happy that Finnforest and the certification bodies, once alerted, have acted appropriately in this matter and this has not dampened our enthusiasm to provide as much FSC-certified product as possible.”
Greenpeace’s Phil Aikman said he hoped the action would serve as a valuable lesson to other foreign plywood manufacturers.
