Ha Noi，Vietnam: According to the Vietnam News, the country expects a year-on-year growth of 10 percent in export of timber and timber products this year, an official from Vietnam Wood and Forestry Product Association said.
 

As pointed out by Nguyen Ton Quyen, deputy chairman and general secretary of the association, wood processing enterprises had secured large quantities of export contracts so the country could reach its wooden export target of US$7 billion by this year.

This was a promising news for the wood industry after a few years of experiencing difficulties in production and business, he said. However, Quyen said that for a long time, the industry continued to face difficulties from changes in the exchange rate between the Vietnamese dong and the US dollar and encounter barriers from free trade agreements.

The local wooden firms also face certain problems with free trade agreements, including the certificate of origin of wooden material. For local firms, especially these small and medium ones, that pose a big challenge as they have not paid much attention to the origin of the wooden material, Quyen added.

According to the General Department of Customs, Vietnam gained a year-on-year increase of 9.4 percent in total export value of wood and wooden products to US$4.35 billion for the first eight months of this year. The four largest export markets of the country’s wooden products were the US, Japan, the EU and China.

During the same period, the US was the largest export market of Vietnamese wood and wooden products, accounting for 39 percent of the total value and reaching a year-on-year surge in export value of 19.3 percent to US$1.69 billion.

Following was Japan which accounting for 10 percent of the total export value and gaining a year-on-year increase of 3.2 percent in export value to US$654 million.

In the first eight months, the industry achieved a trade surplus of US$165 billion.