Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam earned about 1.52 billion USD from wood and forestry exports in March, raising the value in the first three months of this year to over 3.94 billion USD, up 41.5 percent year-on-year.
Of which, exports of wood and wooden products nearly touched 3.7 billion USD, up 41.5 percent, and exports of non-timber forestry products reached 243 million USD, up 38.4 percent.
According to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, major export markets for Vietnamese timber and forestry products were the US, Japan, China, the EU, and the Republic of Korea (RoK), accounting for up to 90 percent of the total value.
Meanwhile, the import value of wood and wooden products was estimated at 227 million USD in March and 709.6 million USD in the first quarter, up 31 percent over the same period last year.
The domestic forestry sector ran a trade surplus of over 3.23 billion USD in the three-month period, up 43.4 percent year-on-year.
Vietnamese enterprises have been importing wood and forestry products from China, the US, Cameroon, Thailand, and Chile, accounting for about 55 percent of the accumulative import revenue.
The rise in the import value was due to higher prices of raw materials and increasing demand.
The Vietnam Administration of Forestry also reported that localities nationwide planted 31,498 hectares of forest so far this year, up 16 percent as compared with the same period last year./.
VNA
