Vietnamese wood and wood products exports expected to rise 10% in 2015

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The Vietnam Wood and Forestry Product Association official expects Vietnam's timber and timber products exports to increase by 10% in 2015 over last year. According to Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman and general secretary of the association, industry has been on the rise lately, and today wood processing enterprises have got numerous export contracts. He expressed hope that Vietnam's timber export would reach US$7 billion, reports Vietnam News Agency (VNA). 

Finally Vietnamese wood industry may see an upward trend. Since 2010 the country's wood industry reduced by 10% per year. Earlier on (before 2010) the situation was much better - each year Vietnamese wood industry used to gain about 15-20%, underlines VNA. 

The decrease was due to various factors, among which, first and foremost, barriers created by free trade agreements and unfavourable USD-VND (Vietnamese dong) exchange rate. At some point, 1$ cost 22,500 VND. It couldn't but negatively affect local wood enterprises who had to face higher prices. 

"The local wooden firms also face certain problems with free trade agreements, including the certificate of origin of wooden material. For local firms, especially small and medium enterprises, that is a big problem as they have not paid much attention to the origin of the wooden material" said Quyen quoted by VNA. 

In January-August 2015, Vietnamese wood and wooden product exports grew by 9.4% to US$4.35 billion y-o-y, says the national General Department of Customs. According to its data, the main export markets for Vietnamese wooden products were the US, Japan, the EU and China. 

In the abovementioned period, the US was the largest export market for Vietnamese wood and wooden products. Its share in the total Vietnamese export reached 39% with the export value having gone up by 19.3% to US$1.69 billion, says VNA. 

Japan was the second largest export market, however accounter just for 1% of the total export value. A year on year increase came up to 3.2% and reached US$654 million. 

In the first eight months, the industry achieved a trade surplus of 165 billion USD, said the General Department of Customs.

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