Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA)Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, estimatedtimber demand between 2017 and 2021 rose from 34.2 to 41 million cubic metres.
Domestic timber accounts for 77.4 percent of timber supply and importedtimber takes up the rest.
As the latter has become more volatile in recent years, he believes Vietnamshould step up afforestation to become less dependent on foreign logs, ensuringthe stability of the furniture industry.
“Domestic timber falls short of demand. Additionally, small and youngtrees are overrepresented in domestic forests. These trees are not goodenough for making high-quality furniture,” he added.
The minister said his ministry had been financially supporting forest owners toboost the coverage of certified forests, notably those certified by the ForestStewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of ForestCertification, to meet the technical requirements of large furniture importers.
The ministry also urged the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association(VTFPA) to develop a data system of timber supply and demand to better monitorthe market, reducing price uncertainty.
Chairman of the VTFPA Do Xuan Lap underlined domestic timber as thekey to the sustainable furniture industry.
He said that the recent Russian military operations in Ukraine, coupledwith a prolonged pandemic, had been pushing up logistic costs and timberprices, putting a strain on furniture manufacturers.
Data from the General Department of Customs shows that imported timber pricesincreased by up to 52 percent in the first three months of this year.
He thus called for larger forest coverage and higher timber productivity topromote a self-sufficient timber industry, reducing the dependence on importedtimber.
“While average timber productivity is about 150-200 cubic metres per hectareworldwide, the figure is just 80-90 cubic metres per hectare in Vietnam. Hesaid that such a disparity represented a great disadvantage of thecountry,” he said.
The chairman also suggested an official market for forestland transfers andcalled for favourable policies to encourage more firms to invest in forestplantations to push up timber output.
Do Thi Bach Tuyet, Chairwoman of the Woodsland Tuyên Quang JSC., opined thatthe plan to develop huge woodlands with new trees periodically planted everyseven years or less is not feasible since forest growers did not havesufficient money to stick with the plan.
"On top of that, seed quality has been deteriorating in recent years,leading to high tree mortality and low timber productivity," she added.
Accordingly, the chairwoman urged the Government to offer preferential loans tofirms and households to encourage them to engage more actively in aforest plantation.
She also urged the Government to keep a close watch on tree seeds to raise thebar on timber quality and push timber productivity to the next level.
Nguyen Van Dien, director of the ministry's Forestry Production DevelopmentDepartment, noted that Vietnam had 14.68 million hectares of forests by March2022, of which 2.17 million hectares are special-use forests, 4.68 millionhectares are protection forests, and 7.82 million hectares are productionforests.
Notably, production forests are comprised of 3.69 million hectares of plantedforests and 4.13 million hectares of natural forests.
“However, only 30-40 percent of timber from planted forests really lendthemselves to furniture manufacturing. The rest end up ground andcompressed for other purposes," he said.
The director admitted that such a proportion indicates ample room for qualityimprovement./.
VNA
