Từ khóa: #wood exports

Facing the increasingly difficult export situation, domestic wood associations have linked together to expand markets, seek customers, and promote trade.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Tri, Head of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, said at a press conference held on January 27 that the total export turnover of wood and wooden products of the country hit US$13.22 billion last year.

In the first six months of this year, the wood export turnover of the Southeastern provinces faced difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The export turnover of wooden products of Binh Duong Province increased by 0.6 percent, estimated at over US$1.7 billion, accounting for 14.5 percent of the total export turnover.

Despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the first four months of this year, wood exports still achieved US$3.2 billion, an increase of 6 percent over the same period last year.

The export market shares of wood and wooden products of Vietnam are mainly in the US, Japan, Europe, and China, accounting for more than 85 percent of the total export value of the industry. However, these markets are struggling due to the pandemic so many importers have temporarily suspended import orders.

Statistics by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that only 7 percent of wood processing enterprises are still operating normally whereas 90 percent of them have had to temporarily halt operations or rotate part of workers' assigned jobs, creating a fracture in the whole chain.

The widespread Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a serious disruption of the supply chains. Besides difficulties in the source of raw materials and export, Vietnam’s wood industry also faces double trouble – the possibility of being imposed anti-dumping tariffs on wood products exported to the US and South Korea.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first quarter of this year, the export value of key forestry products reached about US$2.7 billion, an increase of 16 percent compared to the same period last year.

The wood industry of Binh Duong Province accounts for up to 50 percent of the country’s total wood export value. In the past months, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected significantly the production and export of wood of enterprises in the province, forcing them to promote market expansion and online selling.

Vietnam is currently the largest hardwood exporter to the US in Southeast Asia with export proportion accounting for 77 percent of total hardwood exports of the region, heard at the Southeast Asia Convention held by the American Hardwood Export Council in Hanoi on June 25.