FSC still hot

In some cases, shortage of FSC supplies is already now a limiting factor for the production of FSC-certified products. The simple reason for this situation is that the interest in certification among the paper and printing sectors continues to grow fast. And lately a new fibre-consuming sector, the packaging industry, is also increasingly concerned with certification.

One example is the international packaging company Tetra Pak. Operating in more than 165 countries and buying around 2 million tonnes of paper board each year, this company has the potential to influence the market for certified fibres significantly. Tetra Pak holds FSC chain of custody certification and expects all of its wood products to come from FSC CoC certified suppliers in 2018 at the latest. Last year, the company sold 137 billion packages.

Tetra Pak’s Forest Policy Officer Lena Dahl explains: “We’re experiencing shortage of FSC raw materials at the moment. During the past 5 years we’ve worked with our suppliers towards FSC certification, and currently 80% of our cardboard materials come from FSC chain of custody certified suppliers. However, the amount of FSC cardboard actually available to us from these suppliers has apparently come to a standstill at about 25% of the total inputs”.

Much of the raw material for Tetra Pak’s cardboard comes from Europe where the main problem is the lack of certification among private forest owners. About 60% of Europe’s total forest area is privately owned, and the average operation size is very small. Tetra Pak is encouraging their suppliers to work with FSC group schemes which facilitate the certification of small operations.