Dutch authorities have seized more than 375 tonnes of azob\u00e9 timber during a criminal investigation into a tropical hardwood importer in the northern Netherlands.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, NVWA, said the company is suspected of importing large volumes of hardwood from Gabon without being able to provide sufficient evidence that the timber had been legally harvested.<\/p>\n
The investigation is being carried out together with the environmental crime unit of the Central Netherlands Police and is being led by the Functional Public Prosecutor's Office.<\/p>\n
The case dates back to May, when investigators searched two company premises and a residence linked to the importer. Business records were seized, while company assets and bank accounts were frozen. The NVWA said the measures would allow assets to be confiscated at a later stage if a court finds that profits were obtained unlawfully.<\/p>\n
The owner of the company was arrested and released after questioning. The investigation remains open and no conviction has been announced.<\/p>\n
The timber was intercepted separately in Belgium. At the request of Dutch prosecutors, Belgian customs seized two shipments of azob\u00e9 in the Port of Antwerp. The first consignment was formally seized in July and transported to the Netherlands. A second shipment was seized in September.<\/p>\n
The two consignments total more than 375 tonnes, or around 16 truckloads, according to the NVWA.<\/p>\n
The authority has described the material as \"fout hout\", a Dutch term commonly used for timber suspected of having entered the market without the required evidence of legal origin. The investigation has not established that all of the seized timber was illegally harvested, and the importer has not been publicly identified.<\/p>\n
The case falls under the EU Timber Regulation, which remains the applicable legal framework until the EUDR enters into application.<\/p>\n
Under the EUTR, companies placing timber on the EU market must have a due diligence system covering the origin of the timber, the species, the country of harvest, the supplier and compliance with the legislation of the producing country. Where risks cannot be considered negligible, further information or risk-mitigation measures are required.<\/p>\n
In this case, the point under investigation is whether the documentation available to the importer was sufficient to demonstrate the legal harvesting of the Gabonese timber.<\/p>\n
From 30 December 2026, the regulatory framework for timber imports will change with the application of the EU Deforestation Regulation for large and medium-sized companies and for smaller operators already covered by the EUTR.<\/p>\n
The EUDR retains the legality requirement but adds more detailed traceability obligations. For timber, operators will have to link the material to the plots where it was produced and provide the corresponding geolocation information. The timber must also comply with the regulation's requirements on deforestation and forest degradation.<\/p>\n
This means that identifying the exporting company or even the country of origin will no longer be enough on its own. The compliance file has to go further back into the supply chain and establish where the timber was produced.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dutch authorities have seized more than 375 tonnes of azob\u00e9 timber during a criminal investigation into a tropical hardwood importer in the northern Netherlands.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n