Vietnam’s Export of Wood and Wooden Furniture Recovers after COVID-19

Export of wood and wooden furniture from Vietnam has increased significantly in the last two quarters of 2020. The monthly export has reached more than one billion USD every month since July, meaning that Vietnam will see a two-digit growth compared to last year, regardless of the raging pandemic.

By the end of November 2020, Vietnam’s total export value of wood and wooden furniture reached 11 billion USD, of which wooden furniture accounted for 81.4%. The export value marks an increase by 15.6% compared to the same time period last year, with the total export value of 2020 to reach 12.5 billion USD, a CAGR of 13.8% between 2010 and 2020.

The outbreak of the COVID-pandemic at the start of 2020 has significantly impacted the wood industry. Key export markets such as the US, China, EU, and Japan has all suffered heavily from the pandemic. Hence, containment measures were applied, causing companies to suspend business. In Vietnam, several factories were struggling to survive due to a shortage of orders. The worst decline took place in April, with a recorded decrease of 18.5% compared to last year.

Fortunately, thanks to successful efforts to control the pandemic by Vietnam and other countries, wood and furniture factories has been able to recovere. Since June, the wood industry in Vietnam has witnessed continuous monthly year-on-year growth ranging from 16.4% to 32.9%. More surprisingly, the monthly export value reached over one billion USD for five consecutive months (July to November) for the first time in history. The US, China, Japan, and EU continue to be the largest export markets of Vietnam, comprising more than 78% of the total export value.

Besides support from the government, experts have pointed out other reasons for such impressive growth. One of them is that more people work from home to avoid the spread of the pandemic, which leads to an increase in demand for home furniture. Also, the US-China trade war caused the wood industry of China to bear anti-dumping duties and anti-subsidy taxes. This situation resulted in a shift of orders from China to Vietnam. Moreover, Vietnamese companies successfully identified and focused on strategic products that show an even higher demand than pre-COVID-19, such as wooden kitchen furniture, sofas with wooden frames, kitchen cupboards, etc.

In conclusion, wood and wooden furniture is one of the commodity groups that has bounced back with impressive export value and growth rate in the latter half of this year. The achievement has been made possible thanks to successful containment of the virus, support from the government, a global shift from China as a sourcing market, and identification of strategic products for key export markets. In the whole year 2020, the export of wood and wooden furniture is projected to reach 12.5 billion USD. However, the outlook for the industry in the future remains uncertain due to the underlying risks of new waves of COVID-19 worldwide.

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