VIETNAM’S EXPORTS OF TIMBER AND WOOD PRODUCTS HAVE EXCEEDED $8 BILLION
According to the Vietnam Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first 11 months of 2018, wood and wood products export is estimated at 8.05 billion USD, up by 16% compared to the same period in 2017. With this value, the export of wood and wood products by the end of November exceeded the 8 billion USD mark for the first time and far exceeded the export record of 2017 of over 7.66 billion USD.
In particular, export turnover of timber and wood products to most major markets increased. The US market is leading the export value, reaching 3.5 billion USD, up by 18.4% over the same period in 2017. Followed by Japan, China and South Korea with the export value of 1.04 billion USD, 1 billion USD, and 864.2 million USD respectively. The export value to these 4 main markets accounts for 79.5% of Vietnam’s total export value of timber and wood products in the first 11 months of 2018. In addition, there are 4 other markets with an export value of above 100 million USD including England (260.561 million USD), Australia (174.977 million USD), Canada (148.816 million USD) and France (114.572 million USD).
It is worth noting that in the total value of timber and wood products mentioned above, furniture accounted for the largest proportion. Specifically, in the first 10 months of 2018, wood and wood products export reached 7.221 billion USD, the living room and dining room furniture export was of 1.425 billion USD; followed by bedroom furniture (1.423 billion USD), office furniture (256,602 million USD) and kitchen furniture (249,217 million USD).
As a result, the export value of furniture in general in the first 10 months of the year was more than 3.35 billion USD, accounting for more than 46% of the total value of wood and wood products exports of Vietnam. Two other product groups have achieved an export value of more than 1 billion USD in the first 10 months of the year are wooden frame chairs (1,123 billion USD) and wood chips (1,104 billion USD). The export of timber, planks, and flooring is also of high value – 942,687 million USD.
America is still the largest market for wooden furniture, especially for bedroom furniture. The export figure for this product is worth of 73.2% of the total value of wood and wood products exported to the US. In the US furniture import market, Vietnam has a significant market share and is currently in the second place, only after China. Specifically, in the first 9 months of 2018, the total import value of US furniture was 14.375 billion USD, the import from Vietnam was 2.875 billion USD (accounting for 20%).