Hanoi (VNA) – Timber and wood products generatedabout 9.64 billion USD in export revenue between January and November, up 19.5percent year on year, statistics show.
That includes 1.08 billion USD of overseasshipments in November, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment.
The ministry said from January to October,timber and wood product shipments to the US, one of the four largest importersof these items from Vietnam, grew strongly from the same period of 2018, by34.5 percent to 4.2 billion USD, thanks to the capitalisation of free tradeagreements.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam Timber and Forest ProductAssociation (VIFORES) reported foreign investment in wood processing has risensharply since 2018 through new projects, capital added to existing projects andpurchase of shares in domestic firms.
In the first nine months of 2019, the industryattracted 67 new projects worth over 581 million USD, 2.3 times higher than thetotal registered capital last year. China took the lead among the foreigninvestors in wood processing with 40 projects.
However, VIFORES also admitted numerouschallenges facing the sector, including difficulties in controlling projects’quality, the small scale and outdated technology in some projects, and risks oftrade and origin frauds to take advantage of lower tariffs on Vietnameseproducts to export to the US./.
VNA