Day 056 - 28 Nov 94 - Page 62
1 A. Yes, I mean one can conceive of such a situation, yes,
2 that is possible.
3
4 Q. You do not know, do you, where mills that supply McDonald's
5 suppliers are based in Europe, generally, apart from the
6 two examples which you have given? Do you know of any
7 other examples?
8 A. We know of pulp mills that -- here again I think
9 perhaps you ought to ask Mr. Bateman this because he has
10 looked into the situation of individual mills. I can speak
11 of direct experience in the case of our forest enterprise
12 suppliers in the UK and direct experience in the case of
13 Enso-Gutzeit at Imatra which is a very significant supplier
14 particularly of the polar cup product.
15
16 Q. For what?
17 A. Polar cup -- the thing you drink out of, I believe.
18
19 Q. They would be based near?
20 A. Imatra, north of Helsinki.
21
22 Q. That does not apply in the question I was asking, though,
23 about whether they would be based near plantations that
24 were fairly recently -----
25 A. No, they are based in an area which has naturally
26 regenerated many, many times over, over literally hundreds
27 of years.
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What about the UK?
30 A. Well, UK really in regard to McDonald's, Iggesund and
31 the converters in England, using both imported material and
32 British material, are the only source that McDonald's,
33 I understand, are using. Certainly, Iggesund which is the
34 one which is using the British forest resource is buying on
35 this basis and that is why those figures were used.
36
37 Q. You see, I think it is being put to you that mills in the
38 UK producing pulp which becomes McDonald's packaging are,
39 in some instances, not drawn in anything like the
40 proportions which you have put between thinnings and clear
41 cuttings. That is what is being suggested to you. What is
42 the situation? I can follow, if that hypothesis were
43 right, I can work out for myself what the consequences may
44 be, but is it right?
45 A. Well, to the extent that I can go, which is from the
46 point of view of the forest, discussing it with Swedish and
47 Finnish forestry people who are supplying the industry that
48 makes this packaging, these calculations were to them both
49 reasonable and a good representation.
50
51 It would be, obviously, possible to find out, as quite
52 clearly Enso-Gutzeit has provided information of their own
53 kind, what a whole range of different mills actually did
54 use. But the logic of a mixture of thinnings and of the
55 top ends of clearfelled forest when it becomes mature but,
56 nonetheless, plantation or regenerated forest, is sort of
57 fundamental to the European supply for this purpose.
58
59 MR. MORRIS: In Mr. Bateman's statement on page 2 of his
60 statement he says under "Wood Sources", this is a
