Has Georgia become a new gateway for Russian plywood into the EU market?

EU imports of plywood from Georgia continued to rise sharply in 2025, extending a trade pattern that first emerged in 2023 and has since attracted growing attention from the European wood-based panels sector. While no formal determination has been made by EU authorities, trade data and investigative reporting have raised questions about whether Georgia may be functioning as a transit route for plywood originally produced in Russia. A trade flow that did not exist before 2023 Until 2022, Georgia had no recorded plywood exports to the European Union. Eurostat data show that EU imports from Georgia were ...