Позначка: Bernd Doerre

Pavlo Semeniuk, a member of the Kovel city council, is linked to a large-scale scheme of illegal export of EPAL pallets, which allegedly uses thousands of cubic meters of illegal wood. Australian journalist Jason Ross writes about it.

Jason works for the international publication Wood Central, which also reported on the scandal with Ukrainian pallets.

The publication reports that the European Pallet Association (EPAL) has strengthened control over conflict wood and warned Ukrainian exporters that it will cancel their licenses if “illegal and conflict wood” is exported.

«The warning came after a senior Ukrainian official was accused of operating a pallet racket where more than 80% of pallets produced by one of the country’s pallet suppliers used illegal timber», notes Wood Central.

It is also reported that “the official heads an organized crime group that makes hundreds of millions of dollars from the illegal pallet scheme”.

Wood Central cites a letter from EPAL’s executive director, Bernd Doеrre, in which he stressed that even the first violation will now result in the license being revoked.

The publication notes that the suspicions are based on the Ukrainian investigation, which concerned the supplier of pallets, the deputy of the Kovel City Council, Pavlo Semeniuk, the owner of the company “Agropromtechcentr” and a number of other affiliated companies.

«In particular, from May 2022 to March 2023, the Ukrainian enterprises exported pallets and boards abroad in terms of a total volume of 141,140 cubic meters of lumber. For the manufacture of such a volume of lumber, about 352 thousand tons are needed. cubic meters of wood. And during this period, the volume of wood officially purchased by these enterprises amounted to only 85,835 cubic meters», the report said.