The announcement policy will shake the domestic mahogany market.

Recently, an announcement with the official seal of the national endangered species import and Export Administration Office (hereinafter referred to as the “endangered species management office”) caused an uproar in the mahogany industry.

According to the Announcement No. 8 of 2018, according to the notice of the Secretariat of the Convention on international trade in endangered species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on November 1, 2018, the commercial trade of Nigerian hedgehog red sandalwood and Laos Dalbergia species is suspended, and the updated list of countries and species involved in the suspension of trade is attached. The signing date of the announcement is November 20, 2018.

The Beijing News reporter asked Han Yujie, director of the quality department of the national wood and wood products performance quality supervision and testing center, for confirmation. The other party said that the announcement was true.

This is tantamount to adding bad news to the already depressed mahogany industry.

According to the new national standard (mahogany GB / t18107-2017), hedgehog red sandalwood is one of 29 mahogany varieties in 5 genera, 8 categories. Hedgehog red sandalwood is mainly produced in tropical Africa, Gambia, C ô te d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Senegal, Western Mozambique and other African countries.

Han Yujie introduced that at present, the hedgehog red sandalwood imported from Nigeria accounts for 60% of the total hedgehog red sandalwood imports. Suspending the commercial trade of Nigerian hedgehog red sandalwood is bound to affect the trade trend.

In addition, the relevant countries exporting hedgehog red sandalwood have no ability to “supplement”. Han Yujie described the current international trade situation of mahogany tree species in some African countries: “Sierra Leone and Ghana are scarce, Gambia is undetermined, Guinea Bissau is in the fog, Mali is in the wind, and there is no news from Cote, Benin, Togo and Buki.” It can be said that Hedgehog red sandalwood has really entered the endangered era.

This policy will even have a huge impact on the domestic mahogany market. It is reported that at present, hedgehog red sandalwood is the main material for medium and low-end mahogany furniture, accounting for about 60% of the medium and low-end market. If the import volume of hedgehog red sandalwood decreases, the import trade volume of mahogany is bound to decrease.

In addition to Hedgehog red sandalwood, the announcement also mentioned the suspension of commercial trade in Lao sandalwood species. Species of the genus Dalbergia from Laos include Pterocarpus alternatus (Dahurian acid branch), Pterocarpus Barry (flower branch) and Pterocarpus olgensis (white acid branch).

It is worth noting that all the tree species suspended this time have been included in international trade control. In 2016, the 17th meeting of States parties of cites listed all species of Dalbergia and hedgehog red sandalwood in Appendix II. The species in Appendix II are not endangered at present, but they are controlled species in international trade. If it still faces trade pressure and the number of ethnic groups continues to decrease, it will be promoted to Appendix I to explicitly prohibit its international transactions.

Trade control has been upgraded step by step, and the temporary trade ban policy has a great impact on the domestic mahogany market. Beijing News reporter learned that in the past two years, many mahogany enterprises have chosen to close their doors or their production workshops have been shut down for a long time. For this announcement, a leader of mahogany enterprise told reporters: “if this goes on, we have no material to do and can only withdraw from the industry.”

Beijing News reporter Feng Jing photo photography Beijing News reporter Wang Yuanzheng proofreading Li Ming