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Wood product exports up 16.3%
Exports of wood products in the first quarter of the year went up 16.3 per cent against the same period last year with a turnover of US$655 million.
Nguyen Ton Quyen, Deputy Chairman of the Viet Nam Timber and Forest Products Association (Vifores), said exports were still focussed on three major markets – the US, EU and Japan.
However, exports to the US market have not increased much as the importers in that country have not overcome the global recession, Quyen said.
Last year, the wood product imports by the US – Viet Nam's largest importer – reduced by 15 per cent against 2008. US firms also reduced the price of imported wood products by 10 per cent, he said.
Viet Nam exported only $700 million worth of wood products to the US in 2009 compared to $950 million in 2008.
Quyen said Vietnamese wood product exporters since this month will have to conform to the US's Lacey Act, which requires all imported wood products to have certification of legal exploitation of timber.
Since late last year, wood product exporters have tried to find new markets, but it is not an easy task, they say.
"Last year, Vifores and some wood product exporters surveyed the Belgium market with the aim of setting up a customs warehouse for our products in Belgium," Quyen said.
Despite Viet Nam meeting the legal requirements to set up the customs warehouse, the plan has not been implemented because the Vietnamese side was not geared to handle the task, he said.
A warehouse in Belgium would facilitate the export of Vietnamese wood products to Europe which holds great potential, Quyen said.
Tran Quoc Manh, Chairman of the Sai Gon Trade and Production Development Corporation (SADACO), said the country targets exporting $3 billion of wood products this year, up $400 million against last year.
However, this was difficult to achieve the target if comprehensive measures were not taken to improve product quality and implement effective marketing campaigns, he added.
Wood products exporters were having expectations of exporting to new markets, Manh said.
Russia, for example, was considered a market with high potential to import Vietnamese wood products, he said.
However, export promotion activities to this market had not been implemented effectively.
Manh said that without the Government's support, wood product exporters by themselves could not carry out effective export promotion campaigns.
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