Wood industry firmly with the export target of US$ 15 billion

On October 29, the Vietnam Administration of Forestry held the online conference “Enterprises in wood industry ready for recover in the new normal situation”, in collaboration with some international agencies and wood and forestry products associations.

Sharing ideas at the conference, Mr, Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) affirmed that most wood processing and trading enterprises were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially those in the South region.

In three months of August, September and October, the export turnover of Vietnamese wood and wood products reached US$ 2.55 billion, down by over 30% as of the same period last year.

Despite of many difficulties, wood industry is still adapting to the new situation step by step. Since beginning of September, wood industry saw signs of recovering. And after ten months of 2021, the total export turnover of Vietnamese wood and wood products reached US$ 12.8 billion, up 24% as of the same period last year.

"We highly appreciate the efforts of associations and businesses, especially their initiative, to solve difficulties during the time of isolation. I hope the wood manufacturing, processing and exporting industries will have good and practical solutions to pass any obstacles, ensuring that the value chains of wood industry are not broken," said the Deputy Minister.

Deputy Minister said that, right from the beginning months of 2021, especially in the third quarter, the government and MARD had had many solutions to support the wood industry. “The MARD is committed to always accompanying wood and forestry products associations in order to raise the value and brand of the wood industry in the international and regional arena,” said Mr. Doanh.

Deputy Minister Le Quoc Doanh emphasized that, the MARD, the Administration, agencies, associations and enterprises must work together to find out ways and initiatives to help recovering production, restructure the operation of enterprises more effectively. Our determination is to help every member can identify chances and challenges in the new normal situation.

Bui Chinh Nghia, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry said that the government, the MARD as well as many related agencies and sectors have had many policies to support businesses and people affected by Covid-19.

“The Resolution 128 will create momentum and help businesses adapting to the new normal situation by assigning many proactive rights to businesses sector,” Mr. Nghia said.

"Through a survey by the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, the domestic price of wood materials did not fluctuate much. The increase mainly came from imported wood sources. This is the basis for the wood industry to analyze and understand the market, before making production recovery plans," Nghia added.

A survey conducted by the Vietnam Wood & Forestry Products Association showed that more than half of enterprises in Binh Duong, Dong Nai, and Ho Chi Minh City had to stop operating in the past few months. The remaining businesses mostly cut capacity. The number of maintaining operations has only about 60 - 70% of the number of workers as usual.

Besides, the circulation, transportation and storage of goods also face many difficulties and lead to a significant decrease in value of export and import.

And due to the social distancing in the time of pandemic, it costed enterprises much more to such procedures like “3 in place” or “1 route 2 destinations”.

The Covid-19 is now under controlled in provinces and cities. Many localities are opening up step by step, production and businesses are running in new normal situation. These are strong bases to make delegates to the conference “Enterprises in wood industry ready for recover in the new normal situation” believe in the possibilities of reaching the export target of US$ 15 billion of forestry industry in 2021.