Ukraine starts round timber imports from EU

Board Member at the National Interests Advocacy Network ANTS, environmental activist Ostap Yednak says Ukraine has launched round timber imports from the European Union member states.

"Ukraine has started importing round timber from the European Union. That's right. You've got it right. In the photo: the first batch of oak from France. In the coming months it will be used to produce lamella [wood slabs] and shipped abroad (to Europe, USA, Japan or elsewhere)," Yednak wrote on Facebook on December 21, having posted the relevant photo.

According to Yednak, this does not mean that round timber from the EU is cheaper or is unavailable in Ukraine. The country's legal manufacturers are now facing a catastrophic situation where most raw material gets to "black" and "gray" markets through illegal schemes and corruption. What's left of the stock is put up for sale at auctions for legal timber processors where prices skyrocket over an artificially created shortage.

Read alsoUkraine should conduct national forest inventory, PM Shmyhal says"Therefore, it becomes profitable to buy round timber in the European Union. Because there is a market there… Market [in Ukraine] must fully get out of shadows and schemes. This implies equal rules of the game, full transparency, electronic accounting, and supply chains with open data, as well the institutional reform at the state forestry enterprises with external audit, supervisory boards, and without any influence on the part of officials," he summed up.

Background

Earlier, the Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade, and Agriculture said it would review the existing restrictions on raw timber exports from Ukraine, taking into account the provisions of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement.

In April 2015, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, adopted amendments to Law "On peculiarities of state regulation of activities of business entities related to the sale and export of timber" (regarding the moratorium on exports of raw timber and lumber). The legislation introduced a 10-year moratorium on the export of these products beyond Ukraine's customs territory.