Russian furniture is being exported to the United States in large quantities through China and Vietnam (reprinted)
Citing the Washington Post, an investigation said that although the United States imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its “special action” against Ukraine, Russian birch wood continued to be transported to the United States and disguised as Asian products. The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit supervision organization headquartered in the United Kingdom, found that most of the birch furniture products exported from Vietnam to the United States at present originated from Russia.
According to the data of Vietnam Customs, about 40000 cubic meters of birch wood are transported from Russia and China to Vietnam every month and assembled into furniture and plywood in Vietnam. The EIA report said that these chairs and bed frames eventually appeared on the shelves of major retailers in the United States.
The investigators of the organization talked with five Chinese companies that accounted for 60% of the export of birch veneer to Vietnam, and concluded that more than 90% of their birch wood came from Russia.
A Chinese timber factory owner told the investigation team that all the birches used by his company came from Russia, but they were repackaged in China and then exported to Vietnam, and China was listed as the country of origin.
In June, the Forest Administration of the Russian Federation asserted that the country’s timber industry was not seriously affected by the sanctions. Pavel Chashchin, the head of the agency, told Russia’s Tass News Agency: “The products of Russia’s forestry industry are mainly oriented to the friendly market to Russia. Where there are restrictions, it will also make corresponding adjustments. The hungry side will continue to look for new export channels.”
Trade data shows that before the Russian Ukrainian conflict broke out, the United States imported hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of birch plywood from Russia every year. Driven by strong demand, these imports surged in the first few months of 2022, and then changed in April, when the Biden government raised the tariff of Russian birch from 10% to 50%. According to the American Hardwood Industry Association, from March to April, even though the number of Russian birch directly imported from the United States dropped sharply, the number of birch plywood imported from Vietnam increased by 206%.
Phuc Xuan To, a senior policy analyst at Forest Trends who has studied Vietnam’s timber industry for many years, confirmed the EIA findings. To said that in the first half of this year, the import of birch sawn timber from China to Vietnam has increased, and birch wood is very likely to come from Russia. According to the agency, Russian white birch trees also appear in markets outside the United States with deceptive labels. The British Timber Development Company, which represents the entire UK timber supply chain, said that the UK company had recently received many offers for birch trees “from the Far East”.
The association said in a statement: “In view of the concentration of birch forests in northern Russia and Eurasia, it is almost certain that the birch materials in plywood supplied to Britain actually come from Russia.” Alex Bloom, an analyst with EIA, said that the sudden increase of Vietnam’s exports attracted EIA’s attention when Russia’s supply to the United States dropped sharply. The agency has been monitoring the migration of Chinese manufacturers to Vietnam in recent years. “We know clearly from previous investigations that a large amount of Russian wood, especially birch, is made into plywood by Chinese factories for export.” She said. “After the United States anti-dumping duties on Chinese hardwood plywood came into effect in 2017, many of these Chinese factories moved to Vietnam to avoid tariffs.”
