The Russian birch tree became the reason for the inclusion of a company from Kazakhstan on the sanctions list.
The Ministry of the Interior and Administration of Poland has imposed sanctions on Qartree LLP, formerly Manufaktura Plus, registered in Kazakhstan.
The company supplies birch plywood, and Poland is one of five recipient countries for its goods. In its first year of operation, it paid more than $2m in VAT in Kazakhstan and employed about five people, delivering supplies to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
The founders of the company are Natalia Slokva and the Furniture Trading House KZ (which belongs to Pinskdrev Holding, Belarus).
“Kazakhstan is a sparsely wooded country… Although the plywood exported by this company had a certificate of origin from Kazakhstan, it may not have actually been manufactured by that company,” said the Interior Ministry.
Polish authorities suspect that plywood was actually produced in Russia, and its import from Russia has been prohibited by EU sanctions.
