Russian timber is slipping into Australian homes hidden behind plasterboard and flooring after being laundered through China and other third countries, evading the tariffs imposed after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. That is according to Mark Corrigan, a chemical engineer who has tracked Russian-origin imports and reported in Nine Media mastheads today. With birch plywood and Siberian larch entering under the cover of paperwork that masks their provenance, Corrigan said the trade was both invisible to home builders and difficult to police.
“Russian birch plywood and Siberian larch beams continue to flood our market,” Corrigan warned.
Kateryna Argyrou, chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations, said laundered timber and refined Russian crude alike entered the country under clean documentation, leaving the Kremlin free to keep collecting its cut. “It all arrives here legally, with a clean bill of origin,” Argyrou said.
The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) estimates up to 100,000 cubic metres of annual imports could carry Russian-origin wood, in a submission to a Senate inquiry into the effectiveness of sanctions on Russia. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, acting chief executive Richard Hyett warns that as many as 15,000 new homes built each year could contain it.
In their submission to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, Hyett pressed the federal government to close what has been described as Russia’s shadow trade through Chinese and Southeast Asian supply chains. AFPA’s submission points to clear evidence that large volumes of Russian timber are being transferred and transformed through China, sidestepping the 35 per cent tariff Australia placed on Russian goods in 2022. Domestic producers were losing ground to cheap imports, the association said, warning that “Russian timber is coming into Australia rerouted through third-party countries.”
Before the war, Russia held more than a fifth of the world’s forests and supplied up to half the local market for laminated veneer lumber, a share that collapsed once the tariff took hold and Chinese shipments surged. The submission follows mounting pressure on Canberra, which has been pressed to close Russia’s conflict-timber loophole amid accelerating third-country rerouting.
The campaign extends an earlier push by the federation, which pressed Albanese on Russia’s shadow timber trade and demanded sanctions reach all products derived from Russian materials wherever they are processed.
The European Union warned last year that plywood purchases posed a major risk of breaching its ban on wood originating in Russia or Belarus, whilst the United Kingdom has prohibited any direct or indirect purchase of Russian timber products. Australia has taken no equivalent step, the association noted, leaving it a growing destination for rerouted exports.
A Department of Agriculture report released under freedom-of-information laws last year found the provenance of more than half of all sampled timber products could not be accurately verified. The assessment, prepared by verification firm Source Certain, warned that the risk of sourcing conflict timber could be managed only through due diligence.
Timber NSW said in its submission that it believed huge volumes of imported timber may have originated in Russia, urging the government to add both directly and indirectly sourced Russian products to the national sanctions list. The state body wants country-of-origin testing tightened alongside any extension of the tariff regime.
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said Australia remained steadfast in supporting Ukraine and that its 35 per cent tariff applied to timber of Russian origin, adding that importers were expected to conduct due diligence on their supply chains.
