FSC Lifts Suspension of Dancoal Certificate

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has lifted the Trademark License Agreement (TLA) suspension of Polish manufacturer of barbecue products Dancoal Sp. Z.o.o (Dancoal) after the company implemented a series of corrective actions and committed to a rigorous verification regime of their supply chain going forward.

FSC is now satisfied that Dancoal has been able to demonstrate implementation of all  the corrective actions that were identified and requested by the certification body that audits the company against FSC’s standards. This was a result of a thorough investigation carried out by Assurance Services International (ASI).

Dancoal has also committed to:

• Purchasing the equivalent amount of FSC certified product that was sold as non-FSC certified to compensate for the non-conforming product that it supplied into the market (without making an FSC claim on it).
• Covering FSC’s full cost of the investigation. FSC will invest this money into enhancing and further developing FSC’s supply chain integrity investigations.
• Providing its certification body and ASI with all the necessary information to undertake continuous and in-depth transaction verification to verify that the volumes of charcoal bought match with the volumes sold and therefore confirm their certified origin.
• FSC carrying out random extensive forensic testing of its charcoal products, at its own sites and from retailers where Dancoal’s charcoal is sold.

The actions taken in this case illustrate that credibility interventions are not just about excluding non-conforming certificate holders. It is also about resolving issues in forestry supply chains that disrupt the flow of products from responsibly managed forests thereby ultimately ensuring that consumers have a trustworthy supply of FSC-certified products.

During 2018 FSC undertook a series of important steps to ensure the integrity of its charcoal supply chain. FSC requested ASI to carry out transaction verification of all the major suppliers and producers of charcoal products in Central and Eastern Europe and sent numerous samples of charcoal products for fiber testing to specialized forest products laboratories. This effort continues in 2019 with more transaction verification and forensic testing.