Russian yellow maple wood products continue to enter the US market to consumers disguised as Asian products. The situation took place despite the US ban on this type of product due to the war Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The report form the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit organization based in the UK, concludes the above and shares exclusively with The Washington Post announced it on October 1.

According to EIA, most of the yellow maple wood products come from Vietnam to the United States are from Russia. EIA cited data from Vietnam Customs admitting that every month, about 40,000 cubic meters of yellow maple wood are shipped from Russia, and then from China to Vietnam. In Vietnam, this wood is used to make carpentry and plywood products.

EIA’s investigation team spoke with five Chinese companies that account for 60% of veneer exports to Vietnam. The EIA concluded that more than 90% of these companies’ yellow maples were from Russia. A Chinese owner also told the EIA investigation team that all the yellow maple wood used by this company comes from Russia; but then packed in China and re-exported to Vietnam with the label of origin from China.

Strategic analyst To Xuan Phuc, researcher of Vietnam timber industry for many years, confirms that the amount of yellow maple lumber imported from China into Vietnam increased in the first half of 2022, and quite likely that amount from Russia.

Before the war of Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States imported hundreds of thousands of blocks of Russian yellow maple every year. In the first months of 2022, the import volume of yellow maple wood continued to increase. But in April, the US government increased the tax from 10% to 50% on this item.

The data shows that although from March to April 2022, the amount of yellow maple wood imported directly from Russia into the US decreased, but the import of yellow maple plywood from Vietnam to the US increased by 206%.