Vietnam earns $2.9 billion from selling wood chips and pellets

Vietnam earned $2.9 billion last year from selling wood chips and pellets to China, Japan and South Korea.

The 2023 wood industry report of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association said that in addition to key wood products, wood chips and pellets contribute significantly to the industry.

Specifically, Vietnam exported nearly 14.4 million tons of wood chips, reaching 2.2 billion USD, accounting for 16.8% of the total export turnover of the wood industry. Compared to 2022, wood chip exports decreased by 8.8% in volume and 20.4% in value. Similarly, with wood pellets, our country exported 4.67 million tons, worth nearly 700 million USD, accounting for 5.2% of the total turnover of this industry.

Currently, the above two products are exported to 13 countries and territories. China and Japan are the two largest import markets of Vietnam, accounting for 92.4% of total output and 92.2% of total export value.

Wood chips and wood pellets are popular in the Chinese and Japanese markets. Photo: nguyenlieudot — Wood chips and wood pellets are popular in the Chinese and Japanese markets. Photo: *nguyenlieudot*

According to the Forestry Department, in 2023, the whole industry will exploit about 19 million steres of firewood (a unit of volume of firewood). This is the main input material for the production of wood chips and pellets. In addition, by-products of the wood processing and manufacturing industry such as scraps, scraps, shavings, sawdust, etc. are also used to produce pellets and wood chips.

Speaking to VnExpress earlier, Mr. Nguyen Chanh Phuong, Director of Danh Moc Company, Vice President of the Handicraft and Wood Processing Association of Ho Chi Minh City (Hawa), said that since August last year, Vietnam's export turnover of wood and wood products has increased by an average of 3-5%. In January, the export turnover of wood and wood products earned nearly 1.5 billion USD, an increase of more than 72% over the same period last year and is on the rise. Exports of wood chips and pellets in the first month of the year increased by more than 22% over the same period last year.

"With the current strong growth rate, this year, Vietnam can reach 17 billion USD," said Mr. Phuong.

Similarly, according to wood chip exporting enterprises, this group still has a lot of potential for development. Wood pellets turnover could reach 1 billion USD in the near future.

Hong Chau

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