The FSC certificate means that the company offers certified products and can, at the customer’s request, sell an FSC certified product.
However, this does not mean that the company sells all of its products with the FSC certificate automatically. Each certified company determines the scope of the FSC certificate and can only sell products reported and approved by the certification body during the audit. This means that from the entire range of products, the company can offer, for example, a selected product with an FSC certificate and sell it only at the customer’s request. A certified company can sell both certified and non-certified products. There is no obligation to sell only certified products. Companies have the option to choose whether to offer their certified products constantly or only at the customer’s request. This is related to the availability of raw materials needed for production and the list of certified suppliers. Lack of access to FSC certified raw materials eliminates the possibility of certification of a given product.
The scope of the supplier’s FSC certificate can be checked in the international database of all certified companies, available at https://info.fsc.org/certificate.php. By entering the supplier’s name without Polish characters or its certificate code, you can verify not only whether a given company is certified, but also the scope of product groups that it offers with an FSC certificate.
To distinguish between the purchase of a certified product and an uncertified one, always check the purchase invoice. In the case of a purchase of a certified product, the invoice should include the supplier’s FSC certificate number and the appropriate FSC category, the so-called “FSC statement” one of the following: FSC 100%, FSC Mix Credit, FSC Mix x%, FSC Recycled 100% or FSC Recycled Credit. The lack of the supplier’s FSC certificate number and the appropriate FSC category on the purchase invoice means that uncertified goods were purchased from a certified company. Raw material or semi-finished product without an FSC certificate cannot be used in certified production.
