Illustrative image (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The export revenue of timber and woodwork products is projected to reach 7.4 billion USD, 200 million USD less than the target set for the sector this year.
Statistics from the Vietnam Wood and Forestry Products Association (Viforest) showed that the figure slightly inched down by 0.1 percent to 3.17 billion USD in the first half of 2016, compared to the same period last year.
The decrease was a result of a significant drop in the export turnover of chipboard, said Viforest Vice Chairman Nguyen Ton Quyen.
According to Quyen, Vietnam shipped overseas between 3.4 and 4 million tonnes of chipboard every year on average, bringing in approximately 850 million USD. Since the issue of Circular 182/2015/TT-BTC, which adjusted an export tariff on chipboard from zero percent to two percent as from January 1, 2016, the sales of the product have become gloomy. In the north alone, about one million tonnes of chipboard remains unsold.
Another reason for the export reduction was an annual fall in the number of outdoor wooden furniture that is mostly exported to the EU, Quyen said.
He added that Brexit would have little impact on the quantity of Vietnamese woodwork products to the UK, but would drag down the export prices by between 5 and 7 percent due to the depreciation of related currencies.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam achieved a total export value of wooden products at 7.1 billion USD in 2015, 8 percent higher than 2014.
Wooden chairs, bedroom, outdoor and office furniture constitute four key export categories. The three largest export markets of the commodities are the US, Japan and China, accounting for almost 68 percent of the total export value.-VNA
