On the supply of raw timber materials for the Vietnam’s export furniture manufacturing industry

Abstract

The paper focuses on analyzing the practice of raw material supply for the export furniture manufacturing industry in Vietnam. Using statistical data and forecasting methods, we evaluate the demand for wood materials for the export furniture manufacturing industry in Vietnam, the supplies of domestic and imported wood materials as well as their origin. The results show that: (i) there will be a strong increase in the demand for wood materials in the coming years; (ii) the domestic supply from the planted forests in Vietnam is yet to meet the demand due to their poor quality and small quantity; (iii) despite that, the domestic raw materials have been improved recently; (iv) the Vietnamese enterprises show a greater concern about the origin of wood materials. From these findings, we suggested some solutions to ensure the supply of wood materials in the coming years as follows: (i) adopting detailed, systematic and scientific methods for forecasting the supply of wood materials; (ii) developing clearer policies on afforestation, exploitation and use of domestic wood materials; (iii) building a portal for the wood materials; and (iv) promoting the links between the suppliers of raw wood materials and the furniture producers.