The furniture factory of the Tai Phuoc Co. Ltd in Phu Tai Industrial Park, the central province of Binh Dinh (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Given what has been achieved so far, the export revenue of forestry products is likely to reach 11 billion USD in 2019, higher than the target of 10.5 billion USD, according to Director General of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry Nguyen Quoc Tri.
He told the press on October 29 that forestry exports so far this year have risen by 18.8 percent year on year to over 9.04 billion USD, leading to a trade surplus of 6.95 billion USD in forestry products.
Notably, forestry exports surpassed 1 billion USD in October, the first time in 2019.
Tri said export contracts for the two remaining months have been fulfilled, citing data of many years as showing that this is also the period of time with the highest forestry export value in a year.
He added for many countries, this is the time for the strongest import of outdoor and indoor furniture, which is the basis for the sector to be confident that forestry exports in 2019 will reach 11 billion USD.
This is a very meaningful figure for the forestry sector as it will help promote the development of relevant fields like forest protection, forest planting, processing and market expansion, the official emphasised.
[Forestry sector urged to fulfil exports goal of 11 bln USD]
Vietnamese forestry products are now present in over 120 countries and territories. The key markets include the US, Japan, China, the EU and the Republic of Korea, to which export revenue is estimated at 7.81 billion USD, making up 86.6 percent of the total shipments of forestry products.
Regarding wood materials for processing, between January and October, about 16.55 million cubic metres of timber were exploited from concentrated planted forests, accounting for 85 percent of this year’s plan and increasing nearly 7 percent from a year earlier.
Besides, another 8.3 million cubic metres were harvested from rubber trees and scattered trees, including some 4.3 million cubic metres of rubber wood.
Timber from planted forests met about 75 percent of the forestry processing sector’s demand, Tri said.
He noted that in the first 10 months, more than 175,500 hectares of concentrated forest were planted, equivalent to 82.7 percent of the target for the whole year. That includes over 7,000 hectares of protection and special-use forest and 168,000 hectares of commercial forest.
However, the work was equivalent to only 98.8 percent of the amount recorded in the same period of 2018 due to prolonged drought.
This year, the sector was assigned to raise forest coverage to 41.85 percent.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the total trade revenue of agro-forestry-fishery products during the 10 months was estimated at 59.1 billion USD. It consists of 33.18 billion USD in exports, up 1.6 percent, and 25.9 billion USD in imports, down 0.5 percent year on year.
As a result, agro-forestry-fishery trade surplus reached 7.3 billion USD, 664 million USD higher than that in the same period past year. Six groups and products of the agricultural sector have enjoyed an export value of over 2 billion USD so far.
In October, agro-forestry-fishery exports stood at around 3.6 billion USD, rising by almost 17 percent from September. The sum includes 1.4 billion USD worth of main agricultural products, nearly 1.05 billion USD worth of main forestry products, 834 million USD worth of aquatic products, and 55 million USD worth of animal products.
China remained the largest importer as it made up 26.8 percent of Vietnam’s total shipments of agricultural products, followed by the US (21.7 percent), the EU (11.9 percent) and ASEAN (10.3 percent).
The ministry forecast the export of farm produce will face tough seas in the coming time, sparked by global trade slowdown and increasing trade barriers in the Chinese market./.
