Vietnam’s earnings from woodwork exports, which indeed witnessed remarkable increases during recent years, have helped the country become one of the world’s 15 largest wood product exporters.
The year of 2000 was considered a milestone in the Vietnamese wood processing industry as the sector reportedly gained an export turnover of US$294 million, a record compared to the previous years, said Nguyen Ton Quyen, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Timber and Forest product Association (Vietfores).
From 2001-2003, the sector’s export revenue had increased by more than US$100 million annually. Last year, its export earnings reached more than US$1.5 billion, as many as 1.5 times and five times higher than 2004 and 2000, respectively.
Wood furniture currently ranks second among the country’s export staples, only behind crude oil, in terms of value, Quyen said, explaining that the industry’s rapid growth is mostly thanks to Vietnamese businesses’ timely seizing of opportunities as the world’s demand for wood furniture has continually increased.
“The demand for woodworks in the world is high, reaching more than US$200 billion worth of products per year, of which around US$25 billion is consumed by the US, one of Vietnam’s largest importers, and US$85 billion by the EU,” he added.
The rapid growth is partly attributed to close cooperation and sharing of experiences in production and business among local wood processors, especially when they receive orders for large volumes.
“The collaboration has helped local processors not only gain initiative in seeking materials for production but also reduce the cost of import wood because of concentrated imports,” Quyen said.
The Vietfores official also revealed that the country currently has around 2,000 woodwork processing businesses, most of them small and medium-sized enterprises.
The State’s open policy, especially the reduction of the tax rate on imported wood materials and exported woodworks to 0 per cent in 2000, has also facilitated the operations of local processors during the last years, Quyen expressed.
The official, however, also gave some difficulties facing the Vietnam wood processing industry such as input shortages, lack of technical workers and outdated technology and equipment.
More importantly, Quyen added, the industry should timely build up a brand name for its product, which will facilitate Vietnamese woodworks to set a firmer foothold in the global market.
To overcome these difficulties, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have stepped up afforestation, targeting an additional 2.6 million hectares of forests from now to 2015.
Regarding worker training, the State will pour more investment into building more vocational training schools and assisting enterprises to train their workers. Banks will be asked to create more favorable conditions for businesses to gain access to capital sources in order to upgrade their technology.
In related news, Vietnam reportedly gained an earning of US$120 million from woodwork exports in the first month of this year, up 22 per cent compared to the same period last year. The country is expected to fetch US$2 billion from woodwork exports for the whole year.
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