Vietnam estimated to earn 7.3 bln USD from wood, timber exports in 2016

Among wood export items, wood chip remained the key product and China continued to be the main importer.
However, the country's wood chip is facing competitiveness in term of price with Thailand, Australia and some African nations, said Nguyen Ba Ngai, deputy head of the MARD's Forestry Administration.
The wood processing industry had developed strongly in the past 10 years, with its export revenue last year doubling the figure in 2010. The development of the industry had brought about an increase in demand for wood materials, from 25.7 million cubic meters in 2013 to 31.3 million cubic meters last year. But the overall output of timber harvested from plantation forests, rubber trees and other sources in the domestic market was about 23 million cubic metres a year. The industry every year has to import a large amount of wood material for processing.
Vietnam earned 5.76 billion USD from wood and wood product exports in the first 10 months of 2016, a year-on-year increase of 0.8 percent, with the US the largest importer of Vietnamese wood products, followed by Japan.
Revenue from wood and wood product exports is expected to reach 7.2 billion USD this year and 10 billion USD by 2020.
Last year, Vietnam imported 1.69 million cubic metres of log timber and 3.5 million cubic metres of sawn timber from over 100 countries and territories. The figures were 1.4 million and 2.3 million cubic metres, respectively, in the first 10 months of the year.