Speaking at the firm’s AGM in Helsinki, Karvinen said that it resulted from higher Russian export duties and use of wood fibre as biofuel.

He added that rising environmental pressures limited the procurement of wood.

Karvinen said: “We are fast-tracking efforts to find alternative sources of wood.”

The news follows Greenpeace’s claim that the papermaker had used timber from ancient forests.

At the AGM, Karvinen said: “We have agreed not to buy wood from Metsähallitus from disputed areas in northern Finland for now, but we can produce pulp without sufficient wood supply.”

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