VietNamNet Bridge – The Wood and Forest Products Association is planning to set up three material wood transaction centres in the north, south and central regions, which are hoped will help solve the biggest problem now – material shortage.
As wooden furniture exports have been growing sharply in the last few years, Vietnamese wooden furniture producers are facing serious material shortages. Nguyen Ton Quyen, Deputy Chairman of the Wood and Forest Products Association, said that local producers cannot plan their business and control prices as they have been relying on material imports and at the mercy of price fluctuations in the world’s market.
There are some 300 wooden furniture producers and all these enterprises import wood themselves to serve their production. Mr Quyen said that it takes time and wastes money if all the enterprises directly import material.
Every year, Vietnamese producers import some $700mill worth of wood, and if the importation is undertaken by just two or three of the biggest trading companies, it will help save time and $100mil in expenses.
Mr Quyen said that the top priority task of the association for the coming time is to set up three wood material transaction centres in the north, south and central regions. Vietnamese producers will place orders and purchase material at the centres instead of placing orders directly with foreign exporters.
Mr Quyen stressed that in the long term, developing domestically sourced wood material should be seen as the most important task. He said that actions should be taken right now, so that Vietnamese wooden furniture producers can be in control of wood material sources in 10 or 15 years.
Issues relating to the establishment of the three centres will be discussed during next month’s meeting of the association.
Currently, Vietnam has around 1.4mil ha of commercial forest with the total reserves of 30.6mil cu m of wood. Domestically sourced wood material now just can meet 20% of the demands of processing.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, by 2020, domestically sourced wood material output will be 20mil cu m a year, which will satisfy 70% of the domestic demand.
It is estimated that Vietnam exports can reach $2bil this year, half of which must be paid for material imports.
Ha Yen | 
