While the sector's restructuringefforts started two years ago, Vietnam is expected to become a woodenproduct exporter to the world of legal timber with the assistance of theVoluntary Partnership Agreement on Forest Law Enforcement, Governanceand Trade (VPA/FLEGT), which is expected to be signed by the end of thisyear.
According to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, thedepartment would create programmes to encourage wood processing firms tocooperate with forest planters to develop stable raw material areas forprocessing and exporting.
In addition, specialised wood processing zones would be developed, coupled with the setting up of databases of forestry exports.
Woodas raw materials in Vietnam has not met production demands, to date,but its prices were more stable in comparison with imports and theirorigins are clearly marked.
Further, many processing firms increased their use of domestic wood as raw materials.
Meanwhile,Duong Phu Minh Hoang, Director of Cam Ha Company which exports 70percent of its wood products to the EU, said that the company purchasessome 50 percent of its timber from domestic sources each year.
HuynhTrinh, Director of Da Nang Forestry Export Product Company which had anannual export turnover of 3 million USD, said the company only usesdomestic wood with legal origins as raw materials.
The VietnamAdministration of Forestry has forecast that Vietnam would have a totalarea of 16.5 million ha of forests by 2020, 50 percent of which would befor production, becoming an important source of raw material for woodprocessing.
According to the Vietnam Wood and Forestry ProductAssociation, the sector was expecting to expand exports to markets,including India, the Middle East and South America.
Further, the industry expect to reach an export turnover of 7 billion USD this year.
Inthe first half of this year, exports of wood products were reported at3.13 billion USD, representing a rise of 8 percent over the same periodlast year.-VNA