Sell “Unwanted Items” to China, Japan… Vietnam Earns Nearly $3 Billion

That is wood chips and briquettes. According to the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Viforest), in 2023, despite the difficulties in the Vietnamese timber industry due to tight consumer spending, exporting “wood chips” including wood chips and briquettes still brought in nearly $2.9 billion.

Specifically, in 2023, Vietnam exported nearly 14.42 million tons of wood chips with a value of $2.22 billion (a decrease of 8.8% in volume and 20.4% in value compared to 2022), accounting for about 16.8% of the total export turnover of the entire timber industry.

Regarding briquettes, in 2023, our country exported 4.67 million tons, earning nearly $680 million (a decrease of 4.3% in volume and 13.7% in value compared to 2022), accounting for 5.2% of the total export turnover of the timber industry.

In reality, Vietnam’s wood chip products have been exported to 13 markets in 2023. Among them, China and Japan are the two largest import markets for our country, accounting for 92.4% of the total output and 92.2% of the total export value.

Our country’s briquettes were exported to 22 countries and territories in the past year. It is worth noting that Japan and South Korea are still the two largest customers importing this product. Accordingly, Japan imported over 2.8 million tons of briquettes, with a value of $438 million, an increase of 12.4% in volume and 14.3% in value compared to 2022. South Korea imported over 1.7 million tons of briquettes, with a value of nearly $214 million, a decrease of 24.5% in volume and 43.3% in value compared to 2022.

Potential products in 2024

According to the Forestry Department, in 2023, the entire timber industry harvested about 19 million cubic meters of fuelwood. This is the main raw material for wood chip and briquette production in our country. In addition, by-products of the processing and manufacturing industry, such as logging heads, sawdust, wood shavings, bark chips… are used to produce wood chips and briquettes.

Since the beginning of 2024, timber exports have also seen a strong recovery. As evidence, in January 2024, wood chip exports reached $217.5 million, an increase of about 21.7% compared to the same period last year. Our country’s briquette exports reached $73.5 million, an increase of 24.1%.

According to experts, Vietnamese wood chips and briquettes still have a lot of potential and room for development. Among them, the export turnover of wood briquettes can reach $1 billion in the near future. Therefore, domestic businesses need to focus on investing and considering investment in material sources to ensure a stable supply for production and export.

Previously, at the Furniture and Interior Export Fair (HawaExpo 2024) which opened on March 6, the Ho Chi Minh City Wood Processing Association (Hawa) said that our country’s wood product exports had shown many positive signs since the beginning of 2024, especially when businesses maintained the US market.

In addition to the US and Europe, new markets also have great potential and good growth, such as India, Canada… To seize this opportunity, according to Hawa representatives, businesses need to diversify in terms of models and compete in prices. In particular, to meet the growing demand for orders, Vietnamese wood businesses need to overcome cost challenges.

According to Mr. Do Xuan Lap, Chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association (Viforest), the wood and wood product export market has shown signs of recovery. However, in 2024, there are still some risks for the industry. The timber industry has grown, but slowly and not much, only about 10 – 12% compared to the last quarters of 2023. Therefore, the most important solution this year is to create a sustainable development image for Vietnam’s timber industry, by relying on the use of certified wood and low emission products.

Reference source: Viforest, Vnforest, Hawa