Tetra Pak supports Chinese, Swedish tree farms
Environmentally friendly forests is goal of FSC certification effort.
What Korsnas in northern Sweden and Yong’an in southern China’s Fujian province have in common is tree farms seeking certification from the international Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Tetra Pak, a leading food processing and packaging solutions company, linked the two sites to support efforts by operators of the two tree farms to earn certificates in responsible forestry management.
Korsnas is one of Tetra Pak’s 13 suppliers worldwide. The 13 suppliers deliver 2 million tons of paperboard each year to the packaging giant.
Tertra Pak said the Yong’an project promotes environmentally friendly management of forest resources in China.
The FSC is an independent non-profit organisation that sets industry standards based on promoting environmental protections, recycling and business ethics.
Highest standards
“Our packages are based on renewable resources, wood fibre, and our goal is to have 100 percent of our wood fiber supply coming from forests that are certified to meet the highest standard – currently the FSC,” said Nils Bjorkman, a vice-president of Sweden-based Tetra Pak Group who is in charge of commercial operations and cluster organisations of the group.
So far, all paperboards processed from wood fibre that Tetra Pak uses in China are imported.
Ten global suppliers – three in Scandinavia, five in North America, one in Brazil and one in Russia – provided 98 percent of the paperboard Tetra Pak needed last year. The remaining two percent was provided by suppliers in Pakistan, Japan and India.
Promotions in China
As early as 2007, Tetra Pak was a partner of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to support efforts by Chinese forestry farms to achieve environmentally friendly business operations.
Last July 116,210 hectares of forestlands in Yong’an received FSC certification, making Fujian Yong’an Forest Group the first enterprise with more than 100,000 hectares of FSC-certified forest in southern China.
Based on its success in Yong’an, Tetra Pak is planning soon to launch a new programme in Tengchong, Yunan province. Carol Yang , vice president of Tetra Pak China, declined to provide additional details.
China Business 15 November 2009