US demand for wood exports up in first 2 months

Vietnam earned 831 million dollars from wood-based exports in the first two months this year, an increase of 36.2 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Demands for Vietnamese wood exports have increased so far this year. Specifically, orders of Vietnamese wood and forest products from the United States during the period were estimated to reach nearly 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, almost the same to last year's total turnover, according to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association on Friday. Meanwhile, the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of southern Ho Chi Minh City forecast that wood product exports to the U.S. this year would surge by 18 percent, while those to the EU market would rise by 8 to 10 percent, to China up 15 percent and to Japan up 11 to 12 percent. Director of the Forest Management Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Huu Dung, however, said that import markets would become stricter about the legality of raw materials, urging domestic enterprises to move to meet the requirements of relevant international trade policies such as the U.S. Lacey Act and the EU's FLEGT. Last year, Vietnam pocketed 4.9 billion U.S. dollars from wood- based exports, up 17.6 percent year on year, according to the General Statistics Office.