Vietnam's wood exports hit US$14.4 billion over 10 months. (Photo: Vietnamnet)

The products posted a record-high export surplus of US$11.7 billion, the highest in the agricultural sector.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese wood pellet exports have recorded rapid increases over recent years. Statistics indicate that wood pellet exports brought in US$542.3 million in 10 months, up 81%, making Vietnam the second largest exporter of pellets in the world.

The first nine months of the year saw the country primarily focus on exporting wood and wooden products to the United States, with export turnover reaching US$6.8 billion, accounting for 55.5% of the total export value of the product group.

Vietnam’s other major consumers of the products were China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, that made up 10.1%, 9.3%, and 5.9% of the market share, respectively.

Wood exports have shown signs of slowing down in recent times, but experts anticipate that export turnover is likely to hit US$1.5 billion each month in the last quarter that helps raise this year’s export turnover to US$16.9 billion, up 14% year on year.

This is contrary to previous concerns by wood processors.

A survey conducted among 52 timber businesses in September by the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Vifores) in collaboration with Forest Trends shows that the majority of companies witnessed decreasing revenues in the United States, the EU, and the UK.

About 33 out of 45 firms exporting to the US said that their revenues decreased by nearly 40% compared to the initial months of the year. A similar trend can also be seen in the EU and the UK, with two-thirds of the surveyed enterprises reporting revenue drops of over 41%.

Moreover, a total of 71% of businesses said that orders will continue to decrease towards the end of the year. Given falling demand globally, 44% of businesses expect revenue will tumble by about 44% for the entire year.