UK agent NHG Timber Ltd expects to start selling independently verified chain of custody (CoC) tropical timber for the first time in July.
The wood, which includes sapele, will come from a scheme operated by the Surrey company’s main tropical timber supplier SEBC (Société d’Exploitation Forestiére des Bois du Cameroun) and verified by SGS.
NHG managing director Nick Goodwin has written to customers asking them to “embrace” the initiative. But he said he was disappointed by the “tardy response” of the industry when he last wrote to customers in August 2002 about the progress of the scheme.
He said: “There is apathy. But step by step we are trying to be positive.”
The CoC timber will be offered to the industry at a premium of €15 per m3, which is about 2% higher than the CIF cost. Non-CoC wood will remain available as normal.
Mr Goodwin said it was good to hear that SEBC had been congratulated on its forest policy by Cameroon’s Ministry of Environment and Forests local office, especially, he added, in days when producers of tropical hardwood received continued criticism.
