Despite the European legislation and its Timber Regulation (EUTR) that is supposed to moralize commercial practices, the teak market remains strongly suspected of illegality. We are talking here about natural teak, that still comes from forests located in the most famous production basin in the world: Burma or Myanmar. Even the Burmese government recognizes that "the creeping risk of fraudulent exploitation is still not ruled out, especially in the Bago Mountain Range" , a region known for hosting some of the world's finest teak stands.
In April 2014, under international pressure, the Burmese government banned the export of teak logs from its territory. Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), a state-owned company,