Wooden product exports set to retain two-digit growth in 2019
VOV.VN - Vietnam’s wood industry is expected to maintain a two-digit growth in the export of wooden products in 2019 as it reaped in 2018 with the export value of US$8.476 billion, up 14.5 percent on year.
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| Wooden product exports are estimated to maintain a two-digit growth in 2019, with the value likely amounting to US$10.5 billion. |
The achievements came under spotlight in the industry’s annual report newly released by the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFORES) and other stakeholders.
Domestic firms accounted for 53 percent of the total export revenue, and the sector has been able to source 75 percent of material wood domestically, said VIFORES Vice Chairman Nguyen Ton Quyen.
Quyen went on to say that the wood industry has 867 foreign-invested firms with a combined investment capital of US$5.5 billion. Most of them are operating on a small scale, with capital averaging US$4 - 5 million each.
Among the foreign firms, 529 are involved in for-export production. They contributed nearly US$4 billion, or 47 percent, to the wood industry’s total export revenue last year.
The United States was the largest importer of Vietnamese wooden products in 2018, with the trading value of US$3.6 billion (up 17 per cent on year), or 43 percent of Vietnam’s total wooden product exports.
It was followed by Japan with the import value of US$1.1 billion, equivalent to 13 per cent of the Vietnamese wood industry’s total export turnover.
The EU was Vietnam’s third largest importer of wooden products. In 2018, the bloc spent US$785 million on buying wooden products from Vietnam, representing 9 per cent of the ASEAN member states’ total wooden product exports.
The wood industry was estimated to continue to hold a two-digit growth in wooden product exports in 2019, with the value likely amounting to US$10.5 billion.
To Xuan Phuc, an analyst from the non-profit organization Forest Trends, stressed that the local wood industry has made progress with the increasing import of clear-origin wood inputs. Last year, Vietnam spent US$2.34 billion on importing wood inputs, surging by 7.6 percent on year.
However, the analyst noted that the industry must keep a close watch on the legality of imported material wood, especially those from high-risk sources.
