{"id":76310,"date":"2018-09-03T10:56:04","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T10:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tin.happy-projects.ro\/asian-timber-operators-in-africa-better-placed-than-their-european-counter-parts\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T08:48:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T08:48:52","slug":"asian-timber-operators-in-africa-better-placed-than-their-european-counter-parts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/asian-timber-operators-in-africa-better-placed-than-their-european-counter-parts\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian timber operators in Africa better placed than their European counter-parts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A major structural change is underway in the African timber industry as operations are reoriented away from the European market towards Asian markets.<\/em><\/p>\n

These issues are explored in one recent trade articles by Alain Karsenty, the Research Director of CIRAD. The article refers respectively to the \u201ccrises\u201d and \u201cbrutal weakening\u201d of European-owned forest and timber operations in Africa in recent years.<\/p>\n

M. Karsenty observes that Asian operators in Africa have been better able to overcome recent market challenges than their European counter-parts because they have significant capital and the markets in which they operate and can profitably utilise qualities different to those demanded by European buyers plus they have been successful in marketing a wide range of species.<\/p>\n

Asian companies are under much less market pressure to demonstrate the legal and sustainable origin of their products in their domestic markets but this is changing, especially in China, but Asian exporters have to meet international standards.<\/p>\n

According to M. Karsenty, \u201capart from the Olam company, which bought a large concession already certified in north Congo in 2011 from a Danish company, no Asian-owned operator has yet sought to obtain the FSC label for its African concessions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The business model pioneered by European operators for their African concessions seems to be unravelling. This model was built on the foundation of forest management plans developed in the 1990s and extended by a period of rapid uptake of FSC certification in the period 2005 to 2010.<\/p>\n

The success of this model depends heavily on the market rewards to be derived from a clear commitment to sustainable forestry and social welfare standards. These rewards should derive for the combination of greater market access and prices for timber products, the anticipated development of new markets for eco-system services, notably carbon capture, and enhanced confidence of shareholders and other financial backers.<\/p>\n

As M. Karsenty notes, \u201cwhile certified woods are sold at a higher price in some sensitive markets, a good proportion of labelled timber is sold at current prices in the southern and eastern markets of Europe, the Middle East and Asia.<\/p>\n

And in this case, investment in certification is not profitable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Presentations at the FSC Dialogue meeting held in conjunction with the Gabon Wood Show in June also highlighted the continuing failure of this business model to deliver adequate financial returns. It was noted here that the total area of FSC certified had declined in the last two years from 5.5 million hectares to 4.85 million hectares.<\/p>\n

The representative of one European-owned FSC certified operation in Africa said that \u201cwe have reached breakeven point after several years of negative performance - but sustainable tropical forest management models are still economically not attractive enough to motivate traditional investors to finance new developments.\u201d<\/p>\n

This company representative said that while efforts are being made to monetise carbon credits of certified forest operations, the returns on this and other ecosystem services are very low and timber sales still account for 90% of revenue. Furthermore, the large majority of this derives from their investments in plantation timber which from a financial perspective (although not from an environmental perspective) performs better than FSC certified natural forest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/h2>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A major structural change is underway in the African timber industry as operations are reoriented away from the European market towards Asian markets. These issues are explored in one recent trade articles by Alain Karsenty, the Research Director of CIRAD. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4713,4716,4715],"tags":[3641,3555,3299,3774],"class_list":["post-76310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-companies-in-the-timber-industry","category-latest-trends","category-market-analysis","tag-africa","tag-asia","tag-europe","tag-tropical-timber","topic-forestry","topic-sawmilling","area-africa","area-asia-middle-east","area-china","area-europe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAsian timber operators in Africa better placed than their European counter-parts - Timber Industry News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.timberindustrynews.com\/ro\/asian-timber-operators-in-africa-better-placed-than-their-european-counter-parts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ro_RO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asian timber operators in Africa better placed than their European counter-parts - Timber Industry News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A major structural change is underway in the African timber industry as operations are reoriented away from the European market towards Asian markets. 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