Wood exports to reach US$3.4 billion
(VOV) - Wood exports would reach US$4.3 billion for this year, up US$400 million over 2011, said the chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forestry Product Association, Nguyen Ton Quyen.
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Wood businesses also forecast that exports would increase till the end of the year thanks to rising demand in the world market.
Quyen said although the world woodwork market has shrunk 30 percent, the domestic wood industry has not been significantly affected, adding that the remaining 70 percent offered a great opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to tap.
Moreover, local wood producers and exporters are not dependent on bank credit so they have not faced the same financial challenges of producers and exporters in other industries.
According to the General Statistics Office, wood export turnover hit nearly US$3.4 billion in the first nine months of this year, representing a year on year rise of 20.2 percent. The US, China and Japan were major importers of Vietnamese wood products during the period.
The country has roughly 4,000 wood producers and exporters besides 30,000 households doing work related to the industry.
Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (Hawa) Nguyen Chien Thang said that Vietnam, which ranks sixth in the world for woodwork exports, will likely see wood exports grow by US$15-20 billion in revenue in the next 10-15 years.
However, experts also urged the industry to restructure, saying that the industry’s growth contains potentially unsustainable factors that could seriously impact future expansion.