Finnish furniture retailer still selling Russian-made stool despite EU sanctions

A popular Finnish furniture chain is selling a stool made from Russian timber, an investigation by Yle’s MOT programme has found, despite EU sanctions banning such imports since mid-2022.

The stool, priced at around €100 and sold online by Veke, is made of untreated Siberian larch and manufactured in Estonia by the Finnish company Ecofurn. Isotope testing commissioned by MOT determined with 95% certainty that the wood originated in Russia.

Ecofurn confirmed the timber was sourced from Russia but stated it was purchased in 2021, before the EU imposed sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company added that selling products made from pre-sanction wood remains legal. Veke’s product listing does not disclose the wood’s Russian origin.

The EU banned imports of Russian timber and wood products in July 2022 as part of sanctions over the war in Ukraine. While companies are not legally required to inform customers of a product’s timber origin, large importers must publicly report annual sourcing data, including the country of origin.

The MOT investigation analysed wood samples from seven products sold by Finnish retailers, focusing on potential Russian timber sources. Samples were tested by the non-profit World Forest ID (WFID) and its partner labs in Germany, comparing them against a global database of tens of thousands of timber isotope samples.

Siberian larch, prized for its durability, is widely traded from Russia, though it also grows in parts of Asia. Jade Saunders, quality director at WFID, noted that while commercial logging of the species is rare in countries like Japan or South Korea, Russia conducts large-scale harvesting for export.