The Forest Workers’ Association of Romania (ASFOR) and the Romanian Commodity Exchange (BRM) have concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to create a platform for trading timber and processed timber, called the Timber Exchange, which will be operational in the first quarter of 2022.
“Such a platform will ensure transparent, efficient, competitive transactions. Data on markets administered by BRM are public and observing ethical norms are assumed by exchange regulations,” BRM announced.
The signatories of the MoU say they assumed a construction which would simplify and clarify the trade of timber.
“Exchange transactions have advantages for both sellers and buyers: prices are negotiated electronically or by auction; quotations and reference prices are laid at the customers’ disposal; the contract is carried out in good conditions based on a warranty system; electronic invoicing and direct debit; short procedure duration – the order is scheduled for trading within a maximum of 7 days from the time of its issuance, BRM said in a statement.
The setting up the Timber Exchange will take wood trade to another level in point of commercial and ethical perspectives.
“There are Timber exchanges in western states, we hope to make the Wood Exchange operational in Romania in the first quarter of 2022,” BRM said.
Romania is home to more than 525,000 hectares of virgin primary forests — more than any other EU country outside Scandinavia. Romania is also one of the very few European countries in which
wildlife including the bear, the wolf and the lynx have never disappeared.
However, Greenpeace estimates between 3 to 9 hectares (7.4 to 22.2 acres) of forest are lost per hour due to illegal logging in the Southeast European country.
Meanwhile, EU’s new 2030 Biodiversity Strategy states that all remaining primary old-growth forests in the EU should be under strict protection.
ASFOR represents the interests of companies in the field of wood exploitation and primary processing. The Association promotes free, secure and transparent wood trade and wants to develop the market devoted to the sale and purchase of wood.
BRM is an institution of experience in the organization of material markets. It has a structure already set up for the sales-purchase of goods and points out that it can build and operate an exchange market platform for wood sales.
