According to the provincial Statistics Department, in August alone, the export value of wood products was estimated at $88.3 million, up by $11.2 million from the previous month.— VNA/VNS Photo Anh Vu

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The southern province of Dong Nai generated approximately US$602 million from exporting wood products during the first eight months of 2014, a year-on-year rise of 8.2 per cent.

According to the provincial Statistics Department, in August alone, the export value of wood products was estimated at $88.3 million, up by $11.2 million from the previous month.

The increase was attributed to a growing demand from the province's main export markets, such as the US, Canada, the UK, the Republic of Korea and Japan, as well as several new markets in Latin America and Africa, Le Van Danh, director of the local Department of Industry and Trade, said.

Many companies have received orders for the first quarter of next year.

According to the Handicrafts and Wood Industry Association of Vietnam, the stable macro-economy, controlled inflation, reasonable credit growth and abundance of human resources had made Vietnam's wood production industry attractive to foreign investors.

Bui Quang Hoi, a director at the Bui Chan Hung Limited Company, said buyers had shifted their orders from China and Thailand to Viet Nam, in order to benefit from its tariff incentives. Viet Nam had already signed trade agreements with numerous countries which determine that import-export taxes for several commodities, including wood, will gradually be reduced to zero.

Dong Nai now has over 600 wood-related enterprises that earned $2 billion in revenue last year, with nearly $1.5 billion generated from exports. Dong Nai's exports account for 27 per cent of the national timber sector's total export value. — VNS