Canada is targeting at Vietnam with the woodworking industry that has posted impressive growth in recent years as a major importer of wood, the Saigon Times Daily reported.
More than 80 Canadian wood and woodwork suppliers are now attending the ongoing HCMC International Furniture and Handicrafts Fair 2007, or HCMC Expo 2007, indicating their interest in the potential Vietnamese market.
Bill Johnston, Canadian consul general in HCMC, told a seminar on the sidelines of the five-day event in Tan Binh District that Canadian companies had entered the local market but had yet to tap the potential to the full.
Thus, they are gathering at a common pavilion at the Expo to build business links with woodwork exporters in Vietnam, he said.
Canada, whose forests account for one-tenth of the global total, is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of wood. More than 80 per cent of Canadian wood is now exported to the U.S.
Nguyen Chien Thang, chairman of the HCMC Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA), which held the seminar together with the Canadian commercial service, said it was time for Canadian wood suppliers to come to Vietnam.
The industry is said to need more wood imports, especially pinewood to boost exports to $2.5 billion this year from US$300 million in 2000, he said.
“Up to 80 per cent of the country’s demand for wood, or around two million cubic meters of wood are imported from other countries, which is a tempting figure for Canadian wood suppliers,”he said.
Vietnam is looking to obtain from US$5 billion to US$7 billion in wooden product exports by 2010, so it will need to import between US$2 billion and US$3 billion worth of wood.
Last year the country spent $716 million on wood imports, including 352,000 cubic meters of pinewood valued at $70 million, up 30 per cent from a year earlier. Most of the industry’s pinewood imports were from New Zealand, Australia and Sweden.
Thang of HAWA said the demand for pinewood was rising sharply as the supply of rubber wood was drying up after many years of the industry relying on this type of wood for furniture production.
This year’s pinewood imports are forecast to rise to $100 million, he said. (STD)
Vietnamese
