IKEA taps Baltics, others for more wood supplies after shunning Russia
STOCKHOLM, Jan 26 (Reuters) – IKEA is using much more wood from Sweden and the Baltics to make up for not sourcing it from Russia and Belarus which the business has shunned due to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, its wood supply manager explained in an job interview.
The world’s major household furniture brand – a single of the world’s prime wooden users – employed 20 million cubic metres of wood in its items, packaging and conversation materials in the 12 months via August 2022.
“We have managed to switch those people (Russia and Belarus) volumes in other international locations on a really hot wooden marketplace,” Ulf Johansson, Global Wooden Supply and Forestry Manager at model owner Inter IKEA, told Reuters.
Sweden, the Baltics, Poland and Germany are amongst nations around the world the place IKEA’s wooden sourcing has enhanced as a final result of the war in Ukraine, he reported, incorporating that some of the answers could possibly be prolonged-time period and some others quick-time period.
Russia and Belarus have been IKEA’s fifth and sixth major wooden suppliers ahead of the war, accounting for 6% and 5% respectively of its supplies, the firm’s web site said.
The business on Thursday launched a map on its web-site showing the origin of all its wood to meet customers’ calls for for extra transparency.
Poland, followed by Lithuania and Sweden were being the 3 greatest suppliers in the 12 months as a result of August 2022.
IKEA claims it uses only Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified or recycled wooden. It banned suppliers from applying Russian and Belarusian wooden just after FSC suspended its certification in the two nations due to the invasion.
IKEA merchants in Russia have been closed since March, even though IKEA owned purchasing malls continue to be open up. Inter IKEA’s 4 factories in the country are shut and up for sale.
Johansson reported IKEA is now the midst of a critique of its extensive-expression wood provide method, in phrases of possibilities to Russia but also in light of expansion ideas for South America wherever it opened its initial retail store in 2022.
“Now it also seems like the raw substance sector is heading down a bit so it is it’s possible a minimal less difficult circumstance suitable now,” he stated.
Wood prices are easing after surging in the earlier couple several years, partly in response to elevated demand from customers for packaging in the course of the pandemic as individuals shopped online.
IKEA has in the latest years been shopping for and running forests in a number of countries by its financial investment vehicle IKEA Investments, from which it could use wood and wood merchandise in the upcoming.
When IKEA suggests running forests responsibly will enable mitigate climate change, it does not however include things like that business enterprise in its in general goal to be weather beneficial by 2030 due to problems measuring carbon seize and storage.
Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Marie Mannes. Modifying by Jane Merriman
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