The export of Vietnam’s wood products in 2015 is likely to grow by 15 percent from this year, said Huynh The Hanh, Vice Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development estimated the shipment of timber and wood products at 6.2 billion USD in 2014.

At a workshop on Vietnam’s wood supply and demand on December 23, Hanh reassured businesses that despite a downturn, European companies are stepping up relocating the manufacture of wood products to developing countries.

The US’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on China, the world’s wood processing hub, also offers an opportunity for Vietnamese companies to expand their export market share in the time ahead, he added.

As Vietnam has pledged to comply with the US’s Lacey Act and the European Union’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA), all wood produced in Vietnam or imported from other countries now come from legal sources.

Wood imports in Vietnam currently hail from 26-30 countries which have sustainable forest management instead of 60 countries in the past, Hanh noted.

Tran Le Huy, General Secretary of Binh Dinh province’s Forest Products Association, said timber from Sub-Mekong region countries which are major suppliers for Vietnam during recent years has high risk amid the nation’s greater integration into the global market.

Since December 2014, Vietnam has suspended the temporary import for re-export of logs and semi-processed wood from Laos and Cambodia. The move will possibly help domestic firms increase the product value as more imported timber will be processed for export, he said.

Huy urged the wood sector to increase the manufacture and shipment of processed products with guaranteed origin instead of raw ones, thus raising the global standing of Vietnamese wood products.-VNA