The wood industry aims for an export target of $17 billion

According to the Department of Forestry, in the 7 months of 2023, the prolonged increase in conflicts caused inflation worldwide to soar. As a result, the main export markets of Vietnam's wood products continue to tighten spending on non-essential products. These include timber and forest products; the export value of wood and forest products only reached $7.8 billion, down 25.5% over the same period and just reaching 46% of the year plan.

However, associations and exporters of wood and wood products still believe in finding opportunities between the decline in orders and 2023.

According to Mr. Do Xuan Lap - Chairman of VIFOREST, Vietnamese wood industry enterprises currently export to 150 countries and territories. Forecasting the prospects of the wooden furniture export market, Mr. Lap said that, Vietnam's wood and wood products import markets have shown signs of economic recovery like in the US market. Consequently, it is forecasted that the possibility of this item being exported to the US market will increase again.

To seize the opportunity, businesses need to comply with regulations in import markets; proactively develop new product lines to diversify products to suit consumer tastes in potential markets; actively implement a number of solutions to expand the connection between domestic and foreign markets to promote the export of wood and wood products...

In order for the wood industry to develop sustainably, Mr. Do Xuan Lap suggested that the Government needs to negotiate to agree on regulations on legal timber traceability of import markets; direct diplomatic missions abroad to strengthen support for the import-export business community; regularly hold dialogue conferences with wood export enterprises to find solutions to solve difficulties in VAT refund and in verifying and tracing the origin of domestically grown forest wood; reduce and limit the import of uncertified natural forest timber, especially in high-risk geographical areas.

Mr. Nguyen Liem, Chairman of Binh Duong Wood Association said that for many years, Binh Duong has been known as the "capital" of Vietnam's wood processing industry with export sales reaching 40-45% of the national sales. This year, Binh Duong is concerned about a decrease in export sales when the export market is gloomy. However, businesses are still trying to find orders.

“Binh Duong province's wood industry takes advantage of trade promotion opportunities by organizing domestic fairs and participating in foreign fairs. Take advantage of markets where the wood industry has long been vacant such as the Middle East market. From there, there will be orders, although not in large numbers, but enough for businesses to withstand during this time”, Mr Nguyen Liem emphasized.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Quoc Tri asked the Forestry Department to research and propose support for innovation in technology innovation, taxes and credits for craft villages using raw wood imported from risky markets; public procurement policy, prioritize the use of furniture products made from planted forest wood with certificates of sustainable forest management and legal timber; perfecting the legal system, strictly controlling the origin of wood materials.

Promote close coordination with relevant ministries and branches to promptly remove difficulties for wood processing and forest product export enterprises. Specifically, coordinate with the Trade Remedies Authority (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to have timely solutions to limit the effects of commercial lawsuits; coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam to have specific solutions to remove difficulties for wood enterprises in terms of value-added tax refund, finance and credit.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Quoc Tri welcomed the comments of representatives of wood industry associations and enterprises. The Deputy Minister called on wood industry associations and businesses to continue to maintain solidarity, support and help each other, be dynamic, creative, and actively link production along the product chain from afforestation to create raw materials to processing and exporting forest products. Studying and coordinating to build stores in exporting countries, saving each small order, each available item... in an effort to overcome difficulties, together with the association, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development completed the export target of $17 billion.