Vietnam’s wood industry is strong at manufacturing but has yet to master markets, so it’s time for businesses and associations to hold large-scale trade promotion events to attract buyers in the long term, insiders have said.
The Ho Chi Minh City Export Furniture Fair (HawaExpo) 2023 is scheduled to take place from February 22 to 25, opening a series of trade promotion events in the wood sector this year.
Vietnam is set to grant a licence under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement/FAO-EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme to wood exports in 2025, after it completes preparing necessary conditions, reported a government official familiar with the sector.
Wood enterprises are getting back to normal after a long suspension of operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are confident to earn a total of 14.5 billion USD from exports this year.
Vietnam is working hard to complete its legal corridor and tighten the examination and supervision of imported wood materials to ensure transparency in the wood sector and meet the strict origin rules in foreign markets.
Vietnam has enjoyed a surge in timber and wood product exports to the US this year, but businesses need to choose the right items to focus on in order to tap into this major market, insiders said.
Vietnam earned 7.83 billion USD from exporting forestry products in the first eight months of 2020, up 10.3 percent year-on-year and accounting for 29.9 percent of the agricultural sector's total export turnover.
Exports of wood and wood products in the first four months of the year were worth nearly 3.2 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, according to the General Department of Customs.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, the wood industry still enjoyed 3.2 billion USD in exports in the first four months of 2019, up 6 percent year on year, thanks to businesses’ efforts to switch to online trading and find new markets.
Local wood processing enterprises need to expand supply chains with a focus on seeking suppliers from domestic and overseas markets to ease disruptions from China due to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, experts have said.
Vietnam expects to gain a total export value of 12.5 billion USD from timber, wooden products and forest products this year, up 10 percent year on year, according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFORES).
With the current good growth, the wood processing industry will achieve its export goal of 20 billion USD by 2025, said Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong at a working session with the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFORES) in Hanoi on January 9.
Vietnam’s wood exports this year are set to reach up to 11.5 billion USD, exceeding the industry’s own target of 10.5 billion USD, according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VTFPA).
Timber and wood products generated about 9.64 billion USD in export revenue between January and November, up 19.5 percent year on year, statistics show.
Foreign direct investment in the wood processing industry has increased rapidly, especially since 2018, the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association has said.
Vietnam is likely to reach its export turnover target of 11 billion USD from wood and forestry products this year as the main season for business is in the last six months of the year, according to an official of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFORES).
2018 was a successful year for the wood industry, with the export of wood products earning the country over 8.9 billion USD (not including non-wood forestry products), up 14.5 percent from the previous year.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is expected to create opportunities for Vietnam to expand markets for major exports like wood and timber products, and seafood.
The world’s wooden interior décor market is predicted to grow 3.5 percent in 2018 and continue expanding, bringing chances for Vietnamese businesses to raise exports of the products.
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