European buyers showing more interest in African timbers Producers in the region are reporting firm demand forpadouk, okoume, ovangkol and even gheombi, a timberthat was not common in the market until a year ago.Gheombi is used for door manufacturing. The timber hasdark streaks but this is apparently appreciated in theChinese market. As a result of the disruption to beech supplies due to theRussian invasion of Ukraine buyers for the markets inEuropean buyers are showing more interest in Africantimbers especially for timbers that could be alternatives forbeech. The availability of hardwoods from traditionally suppliersin Europe has become even more challenging sinceRussia’s invasion of Ukraine encouraging importers tolook more to tropical products. Producers have noted thatdemand from European buyers is more active than usualfor the beginning of the European holiday season. In other news, in the first four months of 2022 Vietnam’simports of logs and sawnwood from Cameroon increasedcompared to the same period in 2021 with imports ofsawnwood in particular reached 70,000 cu.m at a value ofUS$31.92 million 72% up in volume and 74% in value.(See page XX). While Vietnam’s imports of tropical timber have beenrising there has been a slowing of demand for the Chinesemarket where it is reported there has been an accumulationof stocks. (See page XX) National timber tracking system – a risk for theCameroon timber industryLaunched at the beginning of 2022 Cameroon’s secondgeneration ‘Computerised Forest InformationManagement System’ (Sigif2 ) financed by the Germangovernment and the European Union (EU) has failed todeliver and it is now considered as putting Cameroon’sinternational trade in wood products at risk. Producers in Cameroon are struggling to comply with thesystem requirements and are facing huge additional costs.Because of this there have been suggestions that thecountry’s export performance could suffer. The development of Sigif2 has been the subject majordisagreements between the Ministry of Forestry inCameroon, the European Union, German authorities andKfW. Efforts to overhaul the system were largelyunsuccessful to the point that the system could not meetthe requirements of the European Union TimberRegulation (EUTR). In a statement issued on 7 March the Minister of Forestsand Wildlife, Jules Doret Ndongo, revealed that Sigif2 hasserious problems updating the data due to access issuesand instability of the internet network upon which thesystem depends. globalwood