Wood chips for export (Photo: VNA)

HÀ NỘI — Wood pellets and wood chips are a bright spot in the shipment of forestry products, said head of the Wood Chip Section under the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Viforest) Thang Văn Thông.

Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that wood chip exports brought home US$1.1 billion in the first seven months of this year while wood pellets earned $380 million.

Following the heated growth in the last half of 2022, the average export price of wood pellets decreased by nearly 3 per cent to around $157 per tonne in the first half of this year.

The Republic of Korea (RoK) and Japan have been the two major importers of wood pellets from Việt Nam, accounting for nearly 100 per cent of the total volume and value of Việt Nam’s exports to all markets since 2019.

During January-June, Japan spent over $195 million on importing more than 1.16 million tonnes of pellets from Việt Nam, up 5.65 per cent in volume and 28.88 per cent in value year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the RoK imported over 840,000 tonnes of pellets valued at nearly $116 million, down over 33 per cent in volume and almost 43 per cent in value annually.

For wood chips, China and Japan were the largest importers of this product from Việt Nam, making up nearly 95 per cent of the total volume and value of Việt Nam’s exports in 2022 and over 90 per cent in the first half of this year.

China consistently accounts for over 60 per cent of Việt Nam’s total export value. However, there has been a significant decrease in demand in China this year while Japan also experienced a slight decline, leading to a drop in the export prices of wood chips.

In September, Việt Nam’s total forestry product exports surpassed $1.28 billion, up 7.3 per cent after a prolonged period of decline. As a result, the total revenue of forestry product exports was reduced by 20.6 per cent to reach $10.44 billion in the first nine months of this year.

Thông noted with delight that following the direction of the Prime Minister and with the drastic actions by the Ministry of Finance, the General Department of Taxation and local tax authorities, businesses in the wood industry, primarily those involved in wood chip and pellet processing, have been refunded VNĐ2 trillion in value-added tax (VAT).

This will provide capital to support their operations in the coming time and ease the challenges faced by the wood industry due to limit ed orders, he said.