Mar 03, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Beginning from March, 1 2005 Finland will toughen fitosanitary control over softwood timber. The toughening of control is introduced in line with the new EU regulation envisaging stricter rules of fitosanitary control and softwood forest certification. All softwood timber exported from the Asian part of Russia will be examined thoroughly. Round timber and timber goods exported from the European part of Russia will not be subject to the checks. Finland received the permission from the European Commission to examine at least 1% of the timber supplies. A total of 17 million cub m of round timber is exported to Finland from Russia, 50% of the total volume is softwood timber. Analysts beleive that in the next few years Russian timber exports to Finland will reach 20 million cub m/yr.