Vietnamese wooden products still have much fiscal space in France

According to the Import-Export Department (MoIT) citing statistics from the International Trade Center (ITC), in the first six months of 2021, French wooden furniture imports increased by 59.9%. over the same period in 2020, reaching USD 2.4 billion.

As stated by the MoIT, the French are big furniture consumers. Especially, for more than a year, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the citizens have to stay at home more, so they spend time refurbishing their houses and pay much attention to interior products.

To be specific, France has strongly increased wooden furniture imports from markets in the first half of 2021, mainly from Italy, China and Germany, the import value from these three markets accounted for 49.8% of the total import value.

In the first six months of 2021, living room and dining room furniture (HS code 940360), wooden frame chairs (HS code 940161 + 940169) are the two main items in the structure of wooden furniture that France imports. Particularly, imports of living room and dining room furniture reached USD 930.6 million, up 65.2% over the same period in 2020.

France’s imports of wood-frame chairs in the first half of 202 reached USD 730 million, up 63.9% over the same period in 2020. The import proportion of this item accounted for 30.8% of the total import volume. Vietnam is France’s 5th largest wood-frame chairs supplier, the wood-frame chairs import value from Vietnam accounted for only 6.7% of the total import value of this item.

The Import-Export Department assessed that Vietnam is the sixth largest supplier of wooden furniture to France, but the proportion accounts for only 4.5% of the total import value, still low compared to this market’s import demand. This shows that the market expansion potential for Vietnamese wood products exported to the EU is very large.

Experts prognosticate that in the latter half of 2021, Vietnam's export turnover of wood and wooden products to the EU market will increase sharply when the COVID-19 epidemic is under control, the EU gradually relaxes epidemic prevention measures, opens to trading activities, making it more convenient. The economic prosperity of EU countries will be one of the factors supporting Vietnam's exports of wood and wooden products to these markets.

In addition, the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which is being implemented, will bring some benefits to the wood industry such as reducing non-tariff barriers (Traceability, accountability when exporting goods,…). The support of the EVFTA in the import process of modern machinery will also help increase the productivity and competitiveness of the Vietnamese wood industry in the EU market.