Timber, wood product exports reach 9.64 bln USD in 11 months

Timber and wood products generated about 9.64 billion USD in export revenue between January and November, up 19.5 percent year on year, statistics show.

That includes 1.08 billion USD of overseas shipments in November, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The ministry said from January to October, timber and wood product shipments to the US, one of the four largest importers of these items from Vietnam, grew strongly from the same period of 2018, by 34.5 percent to 4.2 billion USD, thanks to the capitalisation of free trade agreements.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (VIFORES) reported foreign investment in wood processing has risen sharply since 2018 through new projects, capital added to existing projects and purchase of shares in domestic firms.

In the first nine months of 2019, the industry attracted 67 new projects worth over 581 million USD, 2.3 times higher than the total registered capital last year. China took the lead among the foreign investors in wood processing with 40 projects.

However, VIFORES also admitted numerous challenges facing the sector, including difficulties in controlling projects’ quality, the small scale and outdated technology in some projects, and risks of trade and origin frauds to take advantage of lower tariffs on Vietnamese products to export to the US.