Malaysia’s timber-related products exports to hit 5.7 billion USD next year

Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – The Malaysian Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) has targeted a two-fold increase in the export of timber-related products to 24 billion RM (about 5.7 billion USD) next year.

Its minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said this can be achieved by exploring new markets such as Central Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania, with the support from the ministry in ensuring sufficient manpower, efficient management, and funding, according to Malaysia's national news agency Bernama.

"We are hopeful of increasing revenue from the wood industry,” she said at a recent media briefing after launching the TIMB3R Design Incubator Programme (TIMB3R DIP) 2.0 and Hackathon.

Despite the pandemic, exports of timber and timber-based products from January to August 2021 amounted to 14.3 billion RM, and the five main export products were wooden furniture (6.6 billion RM), plywood (2 billion RM), sawn timber (1.5 billion RM), builders’ joinery and carpentry (BJC) (606.0 million RM), and wood veneers (460.7 million RM).

The top five export markets were the US (4.9 billion RM), Japan (1.9 billion RM), China (1.6 billion RM), Singapore (614.4 million RM) and India (596.8 million RM).

Malaysia’s wooden furniture exports are projected to exceed the target of 12.5 RM billion for 2021 and the country had already achieved 6.6 billion RM as of August this year.

In 2020, the export value of wooden furniture totalled 10.6 billion RM.

Malaysia has also been listed as the sixth largest exporter of wooden furniture and BJC globally with total exports valued at 12.3 billion RM in 2020./.