FSC Blocks An Viet Phat Energy For Making False Claims On Large Volumes Of Wood Pellets

An ongoing transaction verification loop revealed that An Viet Phat Energy created purchase documents with FSC 100% claims for non-FSC raw material. An Viet Phat Energy used this material for producing wood pellets, which they sold with FSC 100% claims.

FSC and its assurance partner, Assurance Services International (ASI) launched a transaction verification loop (TV loop) on Asian FSC-certified wood pellet supply chains, in March 2021. The second phase of the TV loop revealed that An Viet Phat Energy had provided documents showing the purchase of FSC-certified raw materials from certificate holders in 2020. However, the assessments conducted at some of An Viet Phat Energy's suppliers corroborated that no harvest had taken place at the certified forests and no sale of certified material had been made to An Viet Phat Energy.

Based on these findings, ASI recommended that FSC block An Viet Phat Energy, in accordance with FSC's normative provisions on actions taken against deliberate false claims. An Viet Phat Energy has been blocked for 3.5 years. This means that FSC has expelled the company from the FSC system – the trademark license has been revoked and the company cannot seek recertification for the duration of the blockage. An Viet Phat Energy's FSC certificate has also been suspended by its certification body.

The TV loop on FSC-certified wood pellets (product code W 3.6) was initiated after FSC and ASI received several questions and allegations about the integrity of FSC-certified wood pellets in Asia. Sales and purchase information from 136 certificate holders was collected and analyzed by ASI. The final phase of the TV loop is ongoing, and the final results will be announced towards the end of 2022.

Read about the preliminary results of the TV loop here.

More about false claims and blockage, please refer to FSC's Advice Note 18, available on page 39 here.

More about certification status of An Viet Phat Energy, please visit FSC's public certificate search.

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