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Photo: ven |
Binh Dinh is now one of Vietnam's leading wood product export centers and the kingdom of export wood items in the central region. Last year wood product exports make up more than 60 percent of the province's total exports in value.
The wood product kingdom
Besides those advantages common to most of the central coastal provinces (diverse terrain with forests, National Highway 1A, the north-south railway and air routes), Binh Dinh also has National Highway 19 that connects it to the Central Highlands, southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia. This is a gateway for the wood product industry in the province and outlaying areas through which they gain access to markets abroad. The Quy Nhon Seaport, one of the 10 largest seaports in Vietnam and it handles imported raw materials and wood product exports for the entire central and Central Highlands region. From there, made-in-Vietnam wood products are shipped to different locations both in Vietnam and abroad.
With more than 400,000ha of forest, Binh Dinh partially meets the need for timber for wood item production.
The skilled workforce has been making wood products for years and this could now be called the cradle of wood product production in the central and Central Highlands areas. Wood product manufacture is a major industrial sector that has been prioritized for development for a number of years and there are now more than 110 businesses that are making wood items for export in the province. In the province's Phu Tai Industrial Zone there are more than 50 wood furniture factories, some being the largest of this kind in Vietnam. Wood furniture manufacturers have made great strides in increasing production and enlarging their markets and, thus far, many businesses have FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) chain-of-custody (COC) certification and apply internationally recognized ISO 9000 2001 quality management. They use large amounts of imported timber harvested from FSC certified forests and many businesses engage in trade promotion, market development activities, online transactions and partake in domestic and international trade fairs to present their products and find long-term business opportunities.
The province has become the central region's wood product export center. In the first nine months of 2008, nearly US$200 million worth of wood products were exported from Binh Dinh and a greater proportion of products were being made of high added value and comparative advantage.
Maintaining production levels
Approximately 89 percent of the wood products that are made in Binh Dinh are shipped to Europe, 5.9 percent go to the US, 0.3 percent to Africa, 1.7 percent to other Asian countries and 3.2 percent to Oceania. The biggest export markets for made-in-Vietnam wood products are France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Spain. However, now that Vietnam has become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Binh Dinh wood product manufacturers are facing serious difficulties. Most wood product businesses are quite small and they use old and simple equipment and techniques. Workers' skills are limited and the supply of timber is drying up. In addition, very few businesses have bothered to register a brand or trademark.
To increase wood product exports under current conditions looks daunting and businesses would like the State to help them by providing incentives and making administrative changes.
To keep pace with world market demand, several local wood product companies that previously made only outdoor furniture are now making indoor furniture and many companies have purchased newer equipment to improve quality and designs to be able to better compete.
Provincial authorities are now focusing on industrial zone planning, one of these being the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone. Wood product businesses are being given priority in an attempt to increase wood product exports to 250,000cu.m by 2010 and efforts are being made to find additional sources of timber and design new products that make use of non-wood materials to reduce raw material imports.
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