The export value of wood products is forecast to reach 7 billion USD next year, said General Secretary of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Vifores) Nguyen Ton Quyen.

This is five years earlier than the target set in the national forestry strategy in the 2006-20 period, as approved by the Prime Minister.

Quyen added that the forestry industry expects to increase exports when Vietnam signs more trade agreements, including the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA/FLEGT) about the management of wood processing for legal exports to the European Union, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the eighth joint expert meeting and fourth negotiation session on the VPA/FLEGT recently took place with the aim of ensuring that all Vietnamese timber and timber products that are exported to the European Union are legally sourced and produced. The two sides showed their willingness to complete the negotiations over the FLEGT-VPA in 2015.

Quyen revealed that the forestry industry is also considering increasing its previous export target in the 2006-20 national forestry strategy by 5 billion USD to touch 12 billion USD by 2020.

If suitable measures and effective support policies are taken, the annual export turnover of the industry will likely reach 15 billion USD to 20 billion USD in the next 10 years, Quyen said.

However, he added, the scale of the world demand for wood products is roughly 300 billion USD per year, which means Vietnam's total exports are still quite modest.

This year, Viforest estimated that the export of wood products will reach 6.2 billion USD, five times higher than that of five years ago.

Exports to the main markets, such as the United States and Japan, have increased significantly by 14.17 percent and 19.47 percent respectively.

Experts attributed the preference for Vietnamese wood products in large markets to their good quality and competitive prices.

They said that many importers have turned to Vietnam's products instead of China's, due to high Chinese labour costs.

Vietnam's wood products have so far been presented at more than 100 markets, including major ones such as the United States, the European Union, Japan and China.

Vietnam is the sixth largest exporter in the world and the second largest exporter of wood interior decoration products, claiming nearly four percent of the world market share.-VNA