MALAYSIA: It Pays to Get MTIC Certification for Timber Exports
Copyright 2001 BERNAMA (Malaysian National News Agency) Malaysia Economic News
December 26, 2001
By Johnny Chan
KUCHING, Dec 26, 2001 - With revenues from exports of timber furniture to Europe and the United States running into more than RM5 billion annually, it certainly pays to get the products certified that they had been sourced from sustainably managed forests, says timber consultant Granda Aing.
Granda is the managing director of Kuching-based Saytech Corporation Sdn Bhd, the first company in Sarawak approved by the Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTTC) as an independent assessor under the MTTC Certification Scheme.
MTTC is an independent non-profit organisation established to plan and operate a voluntary national timber certification scheme to provide assurance to buyers of Malaysian timber products that the products have been sourced from sustainably managed forests. The MTTC certification scheme has been likened to the ISO-14000 except that it is specific to the timber industry. It is working closely with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) towards aligning Malaysian forest management standards with FSC requirements. FSC requires exporters to have the MTTC label on their exported products.
About 80 percent of importers in Europe and the US now insist on such certification, a move sometimes perceived by some quarters as part of an orchestrated campaign in the West against producers of tropical timber.
Granda said the certification also applied to exports of round logs.
"Without certification, exporters may find their products rejected at the points of destination," he said in an interview.
A lot was at stake and therefore it made business sense to be certified because of an increasing number of overseas buyers insisting on certification in compliance with sustainable forest management standards, he said.
North Asia, especially Japan, is also under pressure to do the same on certification.
One industry source said the timber industry, a major source of foreign exchange for Sarawak, has little choice but to comply with the requirements.
MTIC has appointed Saytech in Sarawak and other forestry management consultants in other parts of the country as independent assessors under the MTTC Certification Scheme. These assessors provide professional services for a fee.
Granda said his company was given approval by MTTC in providing forest management and consultancy services based on its years of experience in the commodity and oil and gas sectors.
He said forest managers who complied with the standards for susbtainable management based on criteria and indicators developed by the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITT0) would have their forests certified under the Malaysian certification scheme.
MTIC recently indicated that the demand in Europe and the US for certified timber products exceeded supply.
Granda said the scheme was still new and no industry player had yet approached the company.
But he believed that it was a matter of time before the industry became more aware of the need to get certification.
Granda said although this would cost the industry a little more, it would stand to gain much more in the long run if it operated within an environment where there was recognition worldwide for its compliance on sustainable forest management practices.
Sarawak produces more than 16 million cubic metres of timber annually, of which more than half is turned over to local processors who produce products for export.