Source: Baodautu.vn
Mr. Ngo Sy Hoai, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association (Viforest) shared many good news about the wood industry in the UK market.
In the first 9 months of 2024, the wood industry exported 165 million USD to the UK market, an increase of over 17% over the same period. With the current growth momentum, in 2024, the whole industry can export 230 million USD.
According to Mr. Hoai, this number, although very modest compared to the total export turnover of the entire wood industry (expected to be about 16 billion USD this year), nevertheless plays a very important role, because it corresponds to over 40% of the total export turnover. Vietnam’s total wood export turnover to EU27.
“We look at the UK market as a gateway. If we can export a lot to the UK, we can be completely confident in entering other markets, because the UK is a very demanding market in terms of quality, design and production. environmental barrier,” Mr. Hoai said.
Second good news, with the support of Vietnam’s Trade Representative Agency in the UK, About 15 Vietnamese businesses introduced their products at the Exterior, Wooden Furniture and Garden Arts Fair (Source Garden) taking place in the city. Birmingham (UK) from September 10-12.
Accordingly, Vietnam’s booth attracted a lot of customers on the first day of the fair, highly appreciated by customers and importers… This is a very good opportunity for trade promotion of the wood industry in the UK.
Third good news, although wood exports to the UK are still modest in total annual import turnover, about 11 billion USD here, but in the group of wood products and furniture alone, Vietnam is currently ranked 5th. in the world, only behind China, Italy, Poland and Germany, which means that our country’s exports meet the strict standards of the market.
From experience in the export industry to many markets, Mr. Hoai said: “The UK is a country with many high requirements on the environment, on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the impact of climate change, but the Vietnamese businesses have all overcome it, so far there have been no safety warnings from this market.”
With many tax lines at 0%, the wood industry still has many advantages to accelerate exports and expand market share in the UK thanks to the push of the Vietnam – UK and Northern Ireland Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA). going into effect from early 2021.
Viforest’s assessment, after the UKVFTA implementation period, the impact on the wood industry is quite positive. Thanks to preferential tax rates within the next 5 years for all wood products with a rate approaching 0%, Vietnamese wood and wood products have a comparative advantage compared to other countries that are also exporting these products to the market. Older brother.
Talking more about the pervasiveness of UKVFTA, Viforest representative said that, for the wood product group, the tax rate is 0%, while the tax rate for raw materials will decrease from 2-5% in the next 5 years and reach the same level. 0%, measuring the benefits in money will not be too much, but the effect of FTA is greater in indirect effects. That means, UKVFTA can be considered one of the catalysts for the two sides to strengthen cooperation.
In particular, in addition to the fact that Vietnam can export more wooden products to the UK, in the opposite direction, it is expected that more businesses from this country will find their way to Vietnam to invest in forming processing centers. wood.
To more effectively take advantage of bilateral FTAs, Vietnamese wood businesses are encouraged to increase investment in designing models and building their own brands for maximum benefits.
“Currently, only less than 10% of the total export value of wooden products is proactively designed and built by Vietnamese businesses. This causes the industry a lot of losses, sometimes we do too much. a lot but the benefits are not worth much,” Mr. Hoai analyzed.
For example, when a business exports a chair to the UK, it sells for 30 USD, but the royalty paid for the design costs 10 USD, accounting for 1/3.
Mr. Hoai said: “One of the important issues is that we need to change qualitatively, not just focusing on quantity like before, and if we want to change qualitatively, there is nothing other than enhancing quality. products, enhance trade promotion, proactively launch self-designed designs to the market.”
The current positive sign is that a number of large enterprises and leading enterprises in the wood industry have focused on investing and strengthening human resources in design and marketing, taking advantage of digital transformation in the trend of bringing technology to the market. turmeric.
Consumption demand at the end of the year and in the coming years in the UK continues to increase. However, advising Vietnamese suppliers, Mr. Hoai said that in order to export sustainably and take advantage of the UKVFTA, in addition to quality requirements, businesses’ products must also overcome many barriers. about the environment.
In fact, even though the UK has left the EU, EU regulations are still mostly applied in the UK. For example, the regulation on not causing deforestation and preventing forest degradation (EU Deforestation Regulation – EUDR) is certainly applied by the UK as well as the EU.
In addition, businesses must also be mentally prepared to meet the requirements of the EU and UK with traceability and accountability to ensure they do not cause deforestation and forest degradation.
