The turnover from timber and furniture exports in the first nine monthsof this year is estimated at 2.43 billion USD, a year-on-year increaseof 37.7 percent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD).

The ministry reported that the total export turnover of forestry products has risen to 2.6 billion USD.

According to Vietnam’s Timber and Forest Products Association, timberexports are showing positive signs, as orders for exports from now untilthe end of the year have risen rapidly and many of them to thecountry’s major markets such as the US and the EU are very substantial.

Timber now is amongst the top five Vietnamese exports, and the country is Southeast Asia’s second biggest timber exporter.

Vietnam now has more than 2,500 timber processing businesses, 2.8times higher than in 2000 and 7.7 times more than 1990. The number ofnon-State businesses represents 90 percent of the total.

Timber exports in recent years have increased sharply with more than3,000 different items produced. Vietnamese wooden products are now soldin 120 foreign markets, including the US, EU, Japan, Australia, theRepublic of Korea, China and Malaysia.

However, besides domestic resources, Vietnam also has to import a large amount of materials for the industry.

In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam imported 827 million USD worth of timber, down by 31 percent year-on-year./.