The wood processing industry was unlikely to achieve the target of US$7 billion in wood export set for this year due to the euro’s depreciation in export markets and rising electricity and petrol prices. Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development revealed that export turnover from wood and wooden good reached US$3.13 billion over the first half of this year, up 8 per cent year-on-year. During the reviewed period, the US, Japan and China remained three largest importers, accounting for 66% of the country’s total export turnover of wood and wooden products.

Despite recording a 8-per-cent turnover increase, the export was still lower than the figure seen at the same time last year because of a decrease of wood chip exported to China and the slumping shipments of outdoor wood furniture to some EU markets. Besides traditional export markets, many domestic wood processors have failed to tap successfully into new outlets such as Russia and South Korea and some of them even hesitated in expanding their production because of surging input costs.

Meanwhile, in order to reach the US$7-billion goal, local firms needed to maximize their production capacities to earn approximately US$4 billion from exports from now to the year-end, he noted. The Viet Nam Administration of Forestry, the department would create programmes to facilitate the close co-operation between wood processing firms and forest planters in developing stable raw material areas for processing and exporting. Specialized wood processing zones would be also developed, besides the establishment of databases of forestry exports, the administration added.