According to the Vietnam News Agency, the latest statistics from the General Administration of Customs of Vietnam show that the export value of Vietnam's timber and wood products is expected to reach US$15.8 billion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%. Meanwhile, Vietnam's imports of lumber and wood products rose 4.1 percent to $2.8 billion. The trade surplus is expected to be $14.1 billion, up 6.5 percent from last year. In the past three years, the epidemic and global value-added turmoil have severely impacted the furniture supply chain. However, under the background of shortage of raw material supply, rising logistics costs, and labor shortage, the export data of Vietnam's furniture industry still maintains a growth trend. According to the statistics of the Vietnam Forestry Administration, the export growth of timber and wood products has been increasing for more than 20 consecutive years, from 220 million US dollars in 2000 to 15.8 billion US dollars in 2022, and it is also a growth that does not exist in any domestic industry in Vietnam. Pei Zhengyi, director of the Vietnam Forestry Administration, said that since 2022, the global timber market has been affected by the epidemic and the Russia-Ukraine incident. Compared with the performance in the first half of the year, the Vietnamese timber market will go through a difficult time in the second half of the year. Rising global inflation has negatively impacted orders for Vietnam's furniture industry in the final months of 2022, putting exporters in a critical situation. However, with the joint efforts of companies in the industry, the industry is gradually approaching the goal set at the beginning of 2022. In the first 11 months of this year, Vietnam's timber and wood products exports were worth about US$14.6 billion, up 9 percent year-on-year. In November, the monthly export volume was US$1.1 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14.6%. Exports fell further in December, pulling annual growth back to 6.7 percent. It is worth mentioning that during this year, the European Union, the United States, China, Japan and South Korea, with an export value of US$155, accounted for more than 90% of the total and remained Vietnam's main export markets. Relying on the achievements made in 2022, for the coming 2023, Pei Zhengyi said that the forestry output value will increase by 5-5.5% this year to 17.5 billion US dollars.
