To be of value to timber businesses, and other sector stakeholders, it’s vital that industry trade data is both current and accessible – available in comprehensible, user-friendly and relevant formats.
According to the FLEGT Independent Market Monitor (IMM), its own recently updated Data Dashboard and the new Sustainable Timber Information Exchange (STIX), from which it derives its core information, score on both fronts.
The IMM is an EU-funded project, hosted by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO). Its central role is to monitor trade flows to the UK, EU and worldwide of timber and wood products from countries engaged at various stages of FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs). Its trade correspondents in the leading EU timber importing countries and the UK, plus VPA partners Indonesia, Vietnam, the Republic of the Congo and Ghana, also monitor market impacts and perceptions of FLEGT-licensed timber and the FLEGT initiative.
The IMM’s Data Dashboard (www.stats. flegimm.eu) has recently been redeveloped to make it easier to navigate. New visualisation tools have also been added, so users can select and present information specific to their needs.
Clearly underlining market interest in data, the recent webinar hosted by the IMM demonstrating the capabilities of these two sources attracted a capacity international audience of 100 – and the webinar is available to view on its website, www. flegtimm.eu.
Besides being of value and use to the trade in following and analysing market trends, IMM trade analyst Rupert Oliver explained that the Dashboard has various remits.
“It supports the work of IMM correspondents, who undertake trade and specific sector surveys which feed into its annual report and sectoral studies, and also informs policy makers involved in the development of FLEGT and market strategies for the initiative,” he said.
The Dashboard, which is updated monthly, covers products classified under HS codes 44 (wood), 47 (pulp), 48 (paper) and 94 (furniture).
It comprises two components, a Monitoring Board and Market Trends facility. The former gives a broad overview of the EU and UK’s tropical timber trade, setting trade flows from FLEGT-engaged countries in the context of their wider tropical imports from all sources of supply. It also shows trends in the global tropical trade by import country, with the latter segregated by importers which operate market legality controls and non-regulated countries.
Total global tropical timber trade in the 12 months to July 2020, said Mr Oliver, was worth US$63.7bn, with FLEGT-licensing and VPA partner countries accounting for 43%.
“With the latest data to August, the downturn in global tropical timber trade caused by the Covid-19 pandemic is clearly visible, but we can also see the recent sharp pick up in trade, with increased imports in the US and China being key factors,” said Mr Oliver.
The Market Trends facility allows users to break down statistics under various parameters, selecting, perhaps, imports of specific products by a particular EU country from a range of timber suppliers. The data can then be downloaded in raw tabular format, or graphically – and users can also create their own Sankey diagrams on the site.
Launched this year, the STIX website (www.stix.global) was developed under the IMM project as a joint initiative between the ITTO and Global Timber Forum. It obtains its monthly-updated data from Eurostat-Comext, UK HMRC and commercial provider Business and Trade Statistics Ltd. It harmonises value data into dollars and euros and also validates quantity data, using its own algorithm to remove errors and discrepancies.
It provides data under the same product codes as the Dashboard, but for 46 reporting countries. These include nearly all the world’s leading timber importers and exporters, between them accounting for at least 90% of global trade.
Users can define data presented by importer and supplier country. They can select by product, value, or quantity and see the data in graphical and tabular format.
“It’s a powerful tool, providing the most current and cleaned information, allowing users to access and download data in bulk, as a CSV file, and to select and aggregate statistics for commercially meaningful product groups,” said Mr Oliver.
In the webinar, IMM lead consultant Sarah Storck also emphasised that both STIX and the Dashboard are undergoing continual improvement.
“Both facilities have feedback functions for users to share thoughts on further developments,” she said. “The more input we get, the better and more useful our data and analysis will be.”
