The Strategist

IKEA replaces Russian wood with European



01/27/2023 - 06:07



Sanctions led the Swedish business IKEA to stop using Russian wood, but the company managed to find a replacement in Sweden, Germany, Poland, and the Baltic nations, Ulf Johansson, manager of worldwide forestry and timber supply at Inter IKEA parent company told Reuters.



Ximonic (Simo Räsänen)
Ximonic (Simo Räsänen)
Russia and Belarus were IKEA's fifth and sixth-largest suppliers before the war in Ukraine (6% and 5% of total purchases), respectively.

IKEA is currently assessing its long-term timber sourcing strategy, according to Johansson, with an emphasis on substitutes for Russian suppliers.

"Now it also appears that the market for raw materials is falling a little bit, so perhaps the situation is a little bit easier now," he commented. Reuters reports that a decline in timber prices after a rise in the past several years due to increasing demand during the COVID-19 outbreak has aided IKEA's reorientation toward raw materials from other nations.

source: reuters.com