Ministry predicts wood exports at 7.5 billion USD this year hinh anh 1A worker polishes wood products at a workshop in Thuong Tin district of Hanoi (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The export of wood and wood products is forecast to bring home 7.5 billion USD in 2017 and keep increasing in the following years, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The ministry said the overseas shipments of wood and wood products have continually grown since the beginning of this year, reaching 2.4 billion USD between January and April – a year-on-year rise of 12.7 percent.

Last May, the European Union (EU) and Vietnam finished the six-year negotiation on a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade.

While the EU has a demand for 85-90 billion USD worth of imported wood products each year, Vietnam’s annual export of these items to this market is just about 700-800 million USD.

The VPA is expected to help expand Vietnam’s wood export markets to 28 EU countries.

The MARD said if Vietnam taps into these markets well, its wood shipments to the EU can hit billions of USD each year. Meanwhile, there are signs that other countries also have stronger demand for Vietnam’s wood products, which will give another boost to the export of this industry.-VNA
VNA