Established in 2000, though its MD has worked in the industry since 1990, RJC AGENCIES LIMITED is a UK-based timber agency operating from the British mainland. Yet, with clients and suppliers on several continents, it has a truly global reach.
EUTR and Ghana – an Agents perspective
The trade in Tropical timber into the UK ( and EU ) has been falling in recent years. Ghana has followed this trend – in fact from the latest figures available – May 2019 over 72% by volume now goes to the Far East ( heavy to teak and heavy timbers ) and less than 15% to the EU including the UK.
The increasing concern regarding illegal logging and deforestation has led to the introduction of the European Timber Regulation – EUTR – to force a greater and more sophisticated level of due diligence into the procurement process.
Although Ghana is much less important to the UK trade progress has been made in strengthening the monitoring of forest operations and it is possible Ghana will start to issue FlegT licences by the end of this year. These are certificates that confirm a legal supply chain.
The whole process has made compliance with EUTR much easier. The bigger mills have been working with FSC – and can supply Controlled Wood. The smaller producers though can still supply a healthy level of documentation that gives confidence in the supply chain – Form C , various certificates of origin , log yield and movement examples can be found on the Nepcon website
There are problems – most especially with rosewood from northern Ghana. While not part of the traditional trade – there has been a huge export to China of rosewwod logs despite a ban being in place since 2012. Which means a high level of collusion between Chinese traders and Ghanaian officials There have been arrests and deportations – but the problems remain live.
Despite this I believe UK buyers should have full confidence in buying Ghana timbers – traditional species like sapele , odum and emeri are available in smaller volumes – but is is value added that hold the main interest – mouldings , lippings , worktops , horse boxes are available and top quality.
