Wood exports expected to reach US$8 billion

Surpassing the target

Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman and general secretary of Vifores, said the wood sector earned US$5.9 billion in export revenue in the first nine months of the year, up 11 percent year-on-year. The remaining months are generally the peak season for the export of wood and timber products, so the figure of US$8 billion is attainable.

Particle boards, artificial wood boards, melamine-faced chipboards (MDF) and wood pellets were the most exported wood products from Vietnam in the first nine months of the year.

A Forest Trends analyst, To Xuan Phuc, said export turnover of wood and timber products is completely able to surpass the sector’s target. In the first nine months of the year, wood exports grew in most traditional markets such as the US, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea.

However, the biggest challenge for the expansion of the wood sector was competition in raw wood purchases.

Several risks

The Republic of Korea and Japan are planning to tighten the management of imported wood products. This would directly affect Vietnam’s exports to those markets.

Japan will require importers to declare the legality and origin of wood and timber products imported into the country from March 2018, while the Republic of Korea will do the same starting in late 2017.

To Xuan Phuc said that seeking more export opportunities and reducing risks are the long-term development strategies for each Vietnamese wood business in the future. Wood must come from forests grown under sustainable forest management standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and must be imported from non-risk sources.