In October, Vietnamese timber exports earned 528 million USD, bringingtotal timber exports in the first 10 months to 4.98 billion USD, a12.8-percent year-on-year increase.

A report from the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development said timber exports to threeleading markets in the first 10 months of the year continued toincrease.

Export turnover from the US market increased by 14.35percent and from the Japanese market, by 22.03 percent. However, exportturnover from the Chinese market fell by 10.19 percent.

Thethree markets are the leading importers of Vietnamese timber this year,providing 66.35 percent of the value of the country's total timberexports.

Chairman of the Binh Duong Wood Processing Association,Huynh Quang Thanh, said the rehabilitation of the world economy hadopened new prospects for timber processing enterprises.

Inrecent years, enterprises had produced higher quality products that metthe requirements of choosy markets of Europe, the United States andJapan.

The markets have showed interest in Vietnamese woodproducts because of the diverse designs they produced and sophisticatedmanufacturing.

Meanwhile, the nation's imports in October reached177 million USD, bringing total imports in the first 10 months of theyear to 1.9 billion USD, a 55.2-percent year-on-year increase.

Timberimports from Laos accounted for 28.4 percent of Vietnam's market share.This was followed by Cambodia with 12.7 percent, the US with 10.8percent and China with 9.9 percent.

It is expected that Vietnamese wood exports will reach 6.3 billion USD to 6.5 billion USD by the end of this year.-VNA