Huge volumes of Russian birch wood continue to pour into the European Union seemingly unabated, with Chinese traders and lax European border controls doing little to stop an estimated €1.5 billion in conflict timber. Now, a new investigation by German broadcaster SWR warns that the illicit flow is so profound it has begun infiltrating everyday consumer goods — including our Christmas toys.
Russia’s birch forests, the largest in the world, remain a lucrative source of revenue for the Kremlin. The trade benefits oligarch Alexei Mordashov, who controls Russia’s biggest timber company and is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin. And whilst Mordashov and Russian exports were sanctioned after the invasion of Ukraine, SWR found that the wood is redeclared in China before being shipped into Europe with Chinese labels.
Trade data shows imports from China to Europe — particularly Poland — surged after the war began. Internal documents from a Russian timber company, published by SWR, detail how shipments are relabeled before crossing into the EU. “These illegal timber transports threaten the very existence of the European timber industry,” said Marek Janke, managing director of Paged, one of Europe’s largest plywood producers. Timber expert Jaroslaw Michniuk confirmed: “China has become the main exporter of birch plywood. But the raw material remains Russian — and is therefore illegal.”
The infiltration reaches surprising corners of the market.
SWR reporters found that Hape International, the Chinese subsidiary of a German-Swiss toy manufacturer, imported thousands of tons of Russian timber into China over the past two years. The company then offered large volumes for sale online, confirming the Russian origin in correspondence. After inquiries from German media, the offers were deleted. The German managing director said he could not comment on “legally independent sister companies,” which operate with separate compliance structures.
Environmental groups say the scale of the trade is staggering. “Every year, sanctioned wood worth around one billion euros enters the EU,” said Tara Ganesh, head of wood research at Earthsight. She described visiting warehouses where Russian plywood was openly stored and falsely declared.
Lawmakers in Brussels are demanding stricter enforcement.
“We just have to make sure that sanctions are complied with,” said Isabel Wiseler-Lima of the European People’s Party, who last week joined calls to delay the EU’s deforestation regulation. “We know that people often try to circumvent them and that they always succeed. But we have to take as many measures as possible so that this does not happen.”
Poland has shown that enforcement can work – with targeted training for customs officials, Russian deliveries were identified and stopped at the border, leading to a collapse in illegal imports from China. “This successful model must set a precedent throughout Europe,” said Michniuk, who also serves on the board of the European Panel Federation.
But customs data shows imports continue through other routes. With Chinese deliveries to Poland curtailed, volumes entering via Spain and Portugal have multiplied since the war began. Wiseler-Lima expressed outrage at the lack of controls in some EU states: “It cannot be that we continue to give Russia money. Money that all goes into this army and into this war in Ukraine.”
- To learn more about the trade of Russian birch in the European Union, which saw more than 500,000 cubic metres of Russian timber smuggled into the European Union between June 2022 and January 2025 (including 20 lorry loads of birch every day), click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
