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Plantations, poverty and power - Critical Information Collective

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17<br />

Between 1991 <strong>and</strong> 2006, the number of pulp <strong>and</strong> paper companies in Europe decreased from 1028 to 801.<br />

The number of people employed decreased from 390,600 to 259,100. However, the total capacity of the<br />

pulp industry in Europe increased from 38.7 million tonnes in 1991 to 46.8 million tonnes in 2006. Just<br />

over one-quarter of world pulp production takes place in Europe. North America produces 42 per cent,<br />

Asia 21 per cent, Latin America 8 per cent <strong>and</strong> the rest of the world 3 per cent. 50<br />

Global pulp consumption approximately reflects the production figures: Europe consumes 29 per cent,<br />

North America 36 per cent, Asia 28 per cent, Latin America 5 per cent <strong>and</strong> the rest of the world 2 per<br />

cent.<br />

In 2006, European countries imported 7.6 million tonnes of pulp while they exported 2.2 million tonnes.<br />

The trends are interesting. Imports from North America to European countries fell from 4.6 million<br />

tonnes in 2001 to 3.4 million tonnes in 2006. Imports from Latin America to European countries<br />

increased from 2.0 million tonnes in 2001 to 3.1 million tonnes in 2006.<br />

Well over half of pulp production in Europe is in Sweden <strong>and</strong> Finl<strong>and</strong> (28.1 per cent <strong>and</strong> 30 per cent<br />

respectively). For comparison, Germany’s pulp production (the next biggest country) is only 6.8 per cent<br />

of the total.<br />

China – driving the boom in the South<br />

China’s booming economy has long been described as the driving force for the pulp <strong>and</strong> paper industry’s<br />

expansion in the South. “Paper makers’ confidence in the future rests mainly on the assumption that fastgrowing<br />

dem<strong>and</strong> in newly-industrialising countries, especially China <strong>and</strong> south-east Asia, will more than<br />

make up for slackening consumption in the developed world,” wrote the Financial Times back in 1994.<br />

“Consumption in China is currently only about 20 kg a person every year, about 5 per cent of the level in<br />

North America.” 51<br />

China’s paper consumption is increasing rapidly, up from 23.95 kilogrammes per capita in 1994 to 44.66<br />

kilogrammes per capita in 2005. While this is still only 15 per cent of the per capita consumption in the<br />

US, China’s total paper production is catching up with that of the US. In 2005 China produced 53 million<br />

tonnes of paper, compared to 81 million tonnes in the US. Currently paper production in China is<br />

doubling every ten years. If the expansion continues at this rate, by the end of this decade China will<br />

produce more paper than the US. 52<br />

Certainly, China’s economy is growing fast. But much of the paper produced in China is packaging for<br />

50 The statistics in this section come from “Key Statistics 2006 European Pulp <strong>and</strong> Paper Industry”, Confederation of<br />

European Paper Industries, 2007.<br />

The statistics refer to CEPI member countries, which in 2006 included Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finl<strong>and</strong>, France,<br />

Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Pol<strong>and</strong>, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerl<strong>and</strong>, The Netherl<strong>and</strong>s,<br />

United Kingdom.<br />

51 Bernard Simon (1994) “Survey of World Forest Products (2): Paperwork exp<strong>and</strong>s - Forest products fight for survival in the<br />

electronic age”, Financial Times, 17 May 1994.<br />

52 The statistics come from World Resources Institute’s Earthtrends website:<br />

http://earthtrends.wri.org/searchable_db/index.phpaction=select_variable&theme=9. WRI’s source is the UN Food <strong>and</strong><br />

Agriculture Organization’s 2007 FAOSTAT on-line statistical service: http://faostat.fao.org/default.aspx

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