During the Annual General Assembly of European Panel Federation (EPF) that was held in Dunblane, Scotland on June 26-28, changes were made to EPF management. Latvijas Finieris Executive Board member Mārtiņš Lācis joined the Managing Board of EPF as the new Chairman of the Plywood Product Group and successor to Mr Guillermo Hernanz (Garnica Plywood), who retired from this position. Dr Paolo Fantoni (Fantoni) was unanimously re-elected as the Chairman of EPF for his third term from 2019-2021 and  Mr Bernard Thiers (Unilin) remains Vice-Chairman.

“It’s a great honour to represent Plywood Product Group and Latvijas Finieris in EPF Managing Board. Although forestry in EPF member states is sustainable, we must introduce more environmentally friendly products and production systems. A lot of work has been done in this direction and one of my priorities will be to focus on that also in future. I believe that “green” product development is among main advantages of European plywood producers, but it also has to be supported by fair competition and trade policies as well as reliable trade statistics.”

He points out that among his priorities in new position will be promotion of sustainable European plywood and availability of European wood species to European producers.