Vietnam forecast to earn $6.2bn from wood exports in 2014

Vietnam is forecast to earn some 6.2 billion U.S. dollars from exporting wood and related products in 2014, up 9 percent year-on-year, said Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Viforest) on Friday. Nguyen Ton Quyen, general secretary of Viforest said in an interview with Vietnamese government e-portal on Friday that the outlook of the sector in 2014 is promising for the set target as Vietnamese wood exporting companies have signed contracts worth over 3 billion U.S. dollars since the beginning of the year, said Quyen. 2013 was seen as a successful year of Vietnam's wood export amid global declining trend of agriculture sector, Quyen said, adding that the country's wood export revenue hit a record high of 5.37 billion U.S. dollars in 2013. The total revenue could be nearly 6 billion U.S. dollars if included rattan and bamboo art furniture exports, said Quyen. Major markets for Vietnam's wood and its products export in 2013 included the United States, the European Union (EU), and Japan among others. However, China was the market Vietnamese wood saw the most dramatic growth in 2013 with an increase of 35.23 percent year-on- year, bringing Vietnam's wood export revenue in the market to hit roughly 1 billion U.S. dollars during the period, said Quyen. Although the prospects for the country's wood export in 2014 remain bright, Vietnam's wood processing sector is facing several difficulties such as low profit ratio and added value. This was due to high domestic input costs including petroleum, electricity, water, and labor and high cost of purchasing raw materials, Quyen said. Concerning opportunities of Vietnamese wood and its products to the EU market when EU Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan on source and origin of legal timber takes effect, Quyen said Vietnam's wood sector will be beneficiary of the new regulation. Thanks to FLEGT, Vietnam's wood products will be sold at higher prices in a more stable market and have straight approach to EU's customers, Quyen said. In 2013, Vietnam topped EU's wood export markets with a total revenue of 800 million U.S. dollars.