Final results of the birch plywood supply chain investigation

The final results of the transaction verification (TV) loop on FSC-certified birch plywood supply chains, launched by FSC’s partner, Assurance Services International (ASI), have revealed integrity issues related to falsified documentation, fraudulent behaviour and deliberate obstruction of the investigation.  

As a result of this TV loop and the evidence ASI gathered, FSC has blocked the following four certificate holders at this moment: 

1. Xuzhou Aoxin Wood Products Co., Ltd. (FSC-C168958) sold birch plywood with false FSC claims, as confirmed with their trading partner. However, the organization declared to its certification body that they had not sold material with FSC claims and they did not have any FSC-certified timber in storage. 

2. Furuida Wood Co., Ltd. (FSC-C017910) had close business ties with Xuzhou Aoxin Wood Products Co., Ltd. (FSC-C168958) and the certification scope of both organizations are nearly identical. 

3. Petek Kontrplak San ve Tic A.Ş. (FSC-C146820) reported zero sales of FSC products to its certification body between 2021 and 2023 inclusively, yet three certificate holders trading with Petek reported purchasing FSC 100% plywood from Petek. 

4. Tianma Lvjian Nantong Wood Structure Technology Co. Ltd. (FSC-C159853) sold material with FSC claims to two certificate holders even though they did not have sufficient stock. In addition, they did not report these transactions to their certification body and ASI.  

ASI also identified other certificate holders who pose a risk to the integrity of FSC-certified birch plywood supply chains. FSC is examining the evidence ASI gathered, based on which FSC may block some of these certificate holders.  

About the TV loop 

This TV loop is a part of FSC’s Eurasia Integrity Workplan, which focusses on identifying and addressing various integrity risks in FSC-certified birch supply chains in the Eurasian region. ASI launched this TV loop in 2023 to identify the risks of non-certified birch–  including Russian-origin timber –entering FSC-certified supply chains via intermediary countries such as Latvia, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, and China.  

As a part of this TV loop and associated investigations, ASI conducted 12 Compliance Assessments – including unannounced ones – across certificate holders in China, Latvia, Australia, Estonia, and Türkiye.  

Key findings 

• Traceability challenges: The findings of this TV loop confirmed that certificate holders in the FSC-certified birch plywood supply chains rely heavily on certified timber from the Baltic region, particularly Latvia and Estonia. Tracing and confirming the origin of where birch is harvested proved to be difficult due to termination of certificates further down the supply chains prior the end of the investigation, lack of cooperation from some certificate holders, and lack of needed documentation.  
• Birch sourced from Ukraine: The conflict situation in Ukraine and the application of FSC’s policy measures to ensure that timber from conflict zones do not enter FSC-certified supply chains pose sourcing challenges for both certification bodies and certificate holders. FSC and ASI have launched a dedicated investigation into FSC-certified wood supply from Ukraine. 
• Pre-conflict Russian timber: ASI identified that some certificate holders have stocks of Russian-origin birch dated prior to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Currently, all Russian timber is banned from entering certified supply chains.  

Ongoing initiatives 

Through the Eurasia Integrity Workplan, FSC continues to monitor FSC-certified birch supply chains through TV loops, targeted investigations, normative developments, and Wood ID testing.  

A recently published Advice Note, Public disclosure of ‘no FSC sales’ (ADV-STD-20-011_15_V1-0), will enable FSC to publicly disclose the information of certificate holders who report 'no FSC sales' to their certification bodies. From 1 January 2026, the FSC Public Search will feature an option for viewers to see the names of the certificate holders who declare ‘no FSC sales’.  

Based on various integrity investigations, including this TV loop, it has been observed that some certificate holders who make false claims report 'no FSC sales' during their audits. Making the sales activity status of certificate holders publicly available will ensure more transparency in the system and enable FSC- and a wider group of stakeholders to use this information to strengthen their due diligence and compliance processes, as well as for communication with their trading partners. 

The findings of this investigation underscore the importance of robust verification mechanisms and traceability in supply chains within the FSC system. While FSC continues to strengthen the integrity of its supply chains, FSC encourages certificate holders to enforce high due diligence. 

For more information about this TV loop, read the following news articles:  

Launch of birch plywood transaction verification loop | fsc.org (September 12, 2023) 

Initial Insights from an Analysis of Birch Plywood Supply Chains | fsc.org (September 2, 2024)