Made in the UK but Born on Planet Earth
Text and Visualisations by MARIA LAAR
Rarely, when purchasing furniture for your home you come to think about the journey an item made to arrive at the store and then be delivered to your house. In 2017 the UK imported 9.2 million (m3) of wood. From the year 2008 until 2017 the UK imported 82.6 million (m3) of wood.
The table, chair, wardrobe or even wooden picture frames that were given to you as a present all have a small sticker on them "Made in ...". A lot of the time those stickers say, "Made in the UK", however, the wood that was used to make that piece of furniture could have grown in Sweden, Germany or as far as China as the globe shows.
The top 5 importing countries of wood to the UK in 2017 were Sweden, Russia, Canada, Finland and Latvia, with China, Ireland, Germany and Ukraine following. Wood was coming to the UK as far as from countries such as Guyana, Malaysia and Chile in the early 2000s.
If you drag the Year slider, it is visible how the number of countries and the amount of wood traded increases over the years. The UK has increased the number of countries that import wood into the UK steadily from 2008 until 2017. Regarding Export, the UK has exported over 160,000 m3 of wood to China, after which Export significantly decreased from the UK to all countries except Ireland.
What is interesting about trade with China is that in 2015, the National Measurement Office of the UK government released a report (prepared for DEFRA) called "Chinese Plywood enforcement project". It states that:
"As a result of industry concerns and intelligence in this area, this project focussed on plywood manufactured in China and placed on the market in the UK. Plywood is a product that potentially represents an area of high risk, due to long supply chains and the species used in production, being derived from illegally logged sources, notably Africa."
"China is the world’s largest plywood producing and exporting country, making up 40% of China’s wood-based panel production. In the UK, plywood from China makes up around 50% of tropical plywood imports2and the Chinese product is around 25-30% cheaper than other equivalent products available.
The Chinese forestry system and exploitation of domestic forests tend to represent a minor risk due to strong legislation and governance as well as a low risk to the species harvested (poplar, eucalyptus) for plywood manufacturing. However, large volumes of tropical wood are imported into China from high risk areas (e.g. Papua New Guinea3or Africa4) specifically for the face and back veneers."
What are the popular types of raw wood imported to the UK?
Import of wood from China has not decreased as the data shows, the UK only stopped the Export of its wood to China. So which wood is popular? The pie chart shows that Sawn wood has been the most imported type of wood to the UK every year from 2008 until 2017. Sawn wood is wood that has been cut lengthways into planks that are ready to be used in construction and furniture making, which was already cut and processed before importing it to the UK.
Interestingly, Plywood and Industrial Roundwood are second largest imports. Why would the UK import raw wood from other countries if they can grow and cut their Roundwood locally? Steve Coombes, a Lecturer at Cardiff University in an interview said:
“There are complications in terms of processing it and transporting it around the country or the world, sometimes it is ecologically friendlier to ship wood from Norway or Sweden to the North of the UK than driving wood across the country.”
It is important to pick the right transportation method depending on the location and what is sometimes seen as unsustainable can be the opposite.
The "Evolution of Trade" graph below shows that from 2009 there was a steady yearly increase in the import of wood to the UK. This was being fuelled by the apparent consumption calculated using the FAOSTAT Import, Export and Production data, both trends follow the same pattern. The graph also shows that the wood that is grown in the UK is mostly consumed in the UK. 2013 exports have gone down significantly, even during peak years (2011 and 2013), export constituted less than 10% of production.
What is the value of all this wood import?
The value of Imported wood supersedes that of Exported, UK's expenses exceed their profits by at least 2 Billion US Dollars ($), which is around 1.5 Billion Pounds (£). However, looking at the time scale, the value of wood has been dropping, which could mean more affordable wood products for the British population. The fall in the value of wood can also signify the decrease in demand for wood in wooden products or in construction, which in turn would make you think that less wood is being cut down which is better for the environment. But is that the case?
Following on from an Interview with Steve Coombes, after being asked a question whether generally, the UK moved on to other materials in furniture production and construction he replied:
“The industrial revolution in the UK changed the way that we use timber. Before that, we were timber-based like other European countries. We went down that route for lots of reasons such as the fire of London, which changed the materials we use and we moved more towards bricks, steel and then concrete and glass and timber slightly lost its way.”
Nevertheless, even if the UK has moved more towards other materials in construction it remains a major part in the lives of the British. Furthermore, Steve Coombes believes timber is the ultimate future material
for the changing environment and climate change. He adds:
“It locks in carbon, its renewable it can grow anywhere. You can grow distinct species for different purposes, you can get different yield classes which is the time it takes to grow to be practically useable. Whereas oak takes a lot longer than a sicker spree tree, for example.”
The takeaway - the most important aspect of wood usage is to make sure the wood comes from a sustainable source. If demand for wood increases, it is important to plant a tree (or more) for every tree that is being cut down. If the processing of wood is kept to a local level, it has the chance to aid the environment with reforestation which in turn will lock in more carbon.
How much of wooden furniture is traded?
According to the Comtrade database, in 2019 imports consisted of bedroom wooden furniture and wooden seats (upholstered with textile and non-upholstered). 13.3 million items were imported to the UK in 2019 alone for bedroom use, the combined import of wooden framed seats was 17 million. This amount would equal to 45% of the UK population, so 30 million people could buy one wooden seat or bedroom furniture item in 2019. Exports for the UK show that wooden furniture for kitchen use was exported most in 2019 in comparison to bedroom furniture and wooden seats, which can signal that people tend to change their bedroom furniture and seats more often than kitchen units which of course is a more complex process. The same trend can be seen throughout the years from 2008 until 2019.
The numbers in 2008 are quite like in 2019, there is not much fluctuation in the number of wooden furniture imports. All years see imports higher than 23 million items. The total number imported is 240 million, that means every person in the UK can buy 3.5 new wooden furniture items in 11 years.
What is the competitor?
Since wooden kitchenware is the most exported product out of the other wooden furniture, it is interesting to see what type of kitchenware is imported for the British population. Of course, it is plastic items! Wooden cutlery and tableware are higher in imports than metal cutlery and tableware. This is surprising because cutlery, pots and pans are usually made of metal (such as aluminium). However, we can see the imports for wood are higher, which can indicate a higher demand for such products.
To conclude, the furniture inside our homes are similar to the population of the UK. Some are born in the UK but have a heritage of other countries, some are born outside the UK but travel all the way across the world and settle in our houses. Looking closer, we truly have the world inside our homes!
Please click here for details on data sources and methodology.