HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Export turnover ofwood and wooden products reached nearly 3.12 billion USD in the first fourmonths of the year, a year-on-year increase of 18.3 percent, according to theGeneral Department of Vietnam Customs.

The 10 largest import markets were the US,Japan, China, the Republic of Korea, the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, Franceand the Netherlands.

Exports to some market increased stronglycompared to the same period last year. Exports to Austria were up by 181.6 percentto reach 706,000 USD; Portugal up by 56.3 percent to 1.84 million USD; Mexicoup by 53.4 percent to 4.9 million USD; Saudi Arabia up by 43 percent to 12.42million USD; and the US up by 34.7 percent to 1.41 billion USD, the departmentsaid.

But exports to some markets fell significantly,such as Turkey, down by 81.5 percent, reaching 1.1 million USD; Cambodia downby 49.6 percent, to 1.92 million USD; Hong Kong down by 45.9 percent, to 1.32million USD; and Finland down by 41 percent, to 480,000 USD.

The strong rise in demand from Vietnam’s keyimport markets such as the US and Japan increased export revenue in the period,the department said.

In addition, the improvement of the domesticbusiness and investment environment helped boost manufacturing and exportactivities of enterprises involved in the wood processing industry.

The General Department of Vietnam Customsforecasts that the country’s wood and wooden products exports in the first halfof 2019 will increase by 16-18 percent over the same period in 2018, given thatmany wood processing firms have export orders until the end of the year.

According to the Handicraft and Wood IndustryAssociation of HCM City (Hawa), last year the revenue from wood and woodenproducts reached nearly 9.4 billion USD, accounting for over 23 percent of theagriculture sector’s total export turnover.

The wood processing sector also enjoyed a tradesurplus of over 7 billion USD.

Hawa Chairman Nguyen Quoc Khanh quoted PrimeMinister Nguyen Xuan Phuc as saying at a recent conference that Vietnam shouldbecome the world’s quality furniture production hub.

The global furniture market is worth nearly 200billion USD a year, so there is still more room for the country to enhanceexports, according to Khanh.

“The Government has set a target to achievefurniture export revenue of 20-30 billion USD in the next five to 10 years, andit is not an unrealistic target,” he said.

Khanh said domestic wood processing companieshad overtaken foreign direct investment enterprises in terms of export revenue,and could compete fairly with foreign rivals to provide products to largecorporations.

However, local wood enterprises were weak indesign and distribution, with only 5 percent of the exported products designedlocally.

The association over the years had organisedactivities to develop local furniture design teams and help local firms expandtheir distribution systems, he said.-VNS/VNA