Decreasing overseas demand affects export of forestry products

A wood product factory in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The export value of forestry products in July dropped by5.5% from the previous month to 1.41 billion USD, also down 1.6% from the sameperiod last year, according to the Forestry Department under the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development.

The figure for the seven-month periodfrom January to July was estimated at 10.42 billion USD, up 1.3% year on year.

Timber and wood products earned 9.72 billion USD, up 1.2%,while other forestry products brought home 0.7 billion USD, a 2.6% increase.

Main markets for Vietnamese forestryproducts are the US, Japan, China, the EU and the Republic of Korea, whichtogether bought 9.38 billion USD worth of products, or 90% of the total exportvalue.

A 4.9% year-on-year reduction in the US market wasto be blamed for the decrease in the total forestry export value this year,even though shipments to the other four major markets continued to post growth.

Do Xuan Lap, Chairman of the Vietnam Timber & Forest ProductsAssociation (VIFORES), said demand fornon-essential goods in big markets like the US, EU and UK has been droppingstrongly, adversely affecting the business of enterprises in the wood andforestry sector./.

VNA