Vietnamese wood processors are facing difficulties in production due to strong exchange rate fluctuations and rising input prices.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade said Vietnam has to import 70-80 percent of timber materials. As materials costs account for 60 percent of products’ price, it is inevitable that more expensive timber materials push up products’ prices. This puts Vietnamese products at a disadvantage.

Moreover, the difficult access to loans has prevented businesses from expanding production scale, thus unable to receive big orders.

To cope with these difficulties, the ministry advised businesses to look for domestic materials and try to reduce production costs through streamlining production chain, raising productivity and saving electricity.-VNA