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KOMIPO issued an ITB advising that the conditions for submitting FSC, PEFC certificates etc. was exempted in response to request from KFS.
A meeting was held between KFS (Korea Forest Service), ME (Ministry of Environment) and Power plants on Mar. 25th 2015. Following resolutions were passed providing new definitions to “Wood Pellets”
> KFS will inspect all Wood pellets through KFPI (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute) and
will no longer recognise FSC, PEFC, GGL certificates.
> This also means that if the test result of imported pellets are satisfied for the grade 1 ~ 4, then
these pellets will be deemed as Wood Pellets.
> In order to pass this test, importers must submit 2 documents
- A “lumbering certificate” issued by official forest management agency of exporting country
- And the other is “detailed statement for purchasing raw materials”. – A Tax invoice issued by plantation.
- importer may request inspection to KFPI, upon which 2 KFS officers will visit factory to inspect and collect samples to test. In this case, requesters bear all expenses.
If pellets do not fall in the above criteria, they will be deemed, BIO-SRF Pellets.
So What are the drawbacks of Bio-Srf Pellets?
The main hurdle to have pellets classified as Bio-SRF is the import restrction. e.g
- A Contract is required to be signed by the end-user to import Bio-SRF Pellets.
- A Quality test is required on arrival at destination port for every 2500 Tons imported.
- A factory inspection is mandatory and is valid only for 3 months, Unlike for wood pellets such an inspection lasts for 3 years,