Vietnam's wood and wood products exports hit records in 2020

According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam's export of wood and wood products in December 2020 reached US$1.34 billion, setting a new record in export value by month. The previous record was set in October 2020 with an export value of US$1.28 billion.

A second record in the wood industry was that every month in the last 6 months of 2020, wood and wood products export reached more than US$1 billion, specifically, July reached US$1.13 billion; August US$1.15 billion; September US$1.15 billion; October US$41.28 billion; November US$1.24 billion; and December US$1.34 billion.

This is the first time in the history of Vietnam's wood industry, export value reached over 1 billion USD for six consecutive months. Quarter 3 and quarter 4 of 2020 were also recorded for the first time in the history of Vietnam's wood industry as two consecutive quarters with export value reaching more than US$3 billion.

More importantly, the export value of wood and wood products in December 2020 has set a new record in Vietnam's wood industry, surpassing the US$12 billion mark for the first time, reaching US$12.37 billion, up to $1.72 billion higher than in 2019.

Vietnamese wood industry has achieved those impressive records mainly thanks to the strong growth of wood products. In the past year, Vietnam's export of wood products reached US$9.54 billion, up 22.5% compared to 2019. Especially, there were months that wood product export reached over US$1 billion such as November (US$1 billion) and December (US$ 1.04 billion).

Among wood products, wooden furniture had the highest export value. In the first 11 months of 2020, this commodity accounted for 69.3% of the total export value of wood and wood products of Vietnam, reaching US$ 7.64 billion, up 15.6% over the same period in 2019. Most wooden furniture items increased value in the first 11 months of 2020.

The strong growth in export value of wood products is consistent with the policy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the wood industry is to increase the proportion of wood products and reduce the proportion of raw wood (wood chips, boards, flooring, plywood ...) in the total export value of Vietnam's wood industry.