In recent years, the total export of Vietnam wood and forest products has grown steadily at a great rate of 10-14% per year. Contributing to that development is the advantage of abundant forest resources, especially the significant investment and development on the planted forests. So what are the outstanding characteristics of planted forests in Vietnam? Let's find out below!
According to the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, in 2019, localities have produced more than 640 million seedlings, of which 500 million seedlings are planted from seeds and 140 million tissue trees. Currently, the area of planted forests with control and certified origin of seedlings has reached 85%. The total land area with production forests nationwide is over 14.6 million hectares, of which natural forests are nearly 10.3 million hectares, over 4.3 million hectares planted forest.
With a plantation area of up to 4.3 million hectares, Vietnam has the advantage of raw materials for industrial production, especially in the context that large industrial wood producing countries such as China, Malaysia, and Indonesia are running out of raw materials due to unsustainable and over-exploitation, Vietnam has a huge advantage over the supply of raw materials for industrial production. Vietnam planted forest has diverse wood species such as Acacia, Eucalyptus, Rubber, ..., with a short growth cycle (from 5-10 years), which are very suitable for industrial production. In particular, acacia wood has high elasticity, good nailing force, which is perfect for construction products such as Film Faced Plywood, Marine Plywood. In addition, Forestry is highly focused on by the Vietnamese government and identified as one of the key industries in the future. The government has also established projects to develop forestry, typically the project of a high-tech applied forestry zone in Nghe An,...
Currently, as a matter of fact, in many areas, acacia and eucalyptus trees are harvested when they are still young, not mature enough for exploitation, and the wood trunk is small, so the quality of the wood is not yet qualified. Many wood processing factories buy trees that are only as big as a forearm, peeled and pressed into wood chips, and sold to paper mills. Such logging is too early, the volume of wood, as well as the quality, is lower than that of the harvested timber in plantations of sufficient age and size. Although the source of wood materials has met more than 70% of the demand for wood production and processing for export, but not yet stable and sustainable. Many wood processing enterprises are facing many difficulties in purchasing raw materials because of scarcity. The reason is that the supply is not enough or traders in the market focusing on export raw materials. Part of the above shortfall is because businesses have not been able to proactively source local materials to link afforestation and consumption of wood materials with forest owners, localities. It’s also due to many countries in the region have had policies to tighten raw materials from forests, leading to a shortage of supply, increasing pressure on input wood materials.
The growth rate of the forestry sector of 10-14% every year will consequently lead to the development of planted forests. The area of plantations in general and FSC certified plantations is forecasted to increase sharply in the coming years The Development of Business Ecosystems around planted forests is emphasized by the government and local authorities. Many good policies have been established to facilitate the development of planted forests. As a result, more plantations are being developed both in terms of quality and quantity. Value chains have been formed to improve the size and quality of planted forest resources. For example, along with the effective care and development of forests by households and cooperatives, many models have emerged so far. Cooperation and joint venture, association in forestry production are developed by the localities, typically: the association between FOMEX GROUP with suppliers of veneer, with planted forest owners in Nghe An province, between NAFOCO and afforestation households in Yen Bai province, the linkage between Scansia Pacific Company and afforestation households in Quang Tri province. These are the first models in the country, which are promoting efficiency in planting and managing forests according to international standards, supplying certified timber, increasing profits for forest growers and processing enterprises. FOMEX GROUP