Vietnam exported $1.5 billion worth of wood and wood products in September, bringing the nine-month total to nearly $13.3 billion, according to customs data. Exports rose 6.3% year on year, keeping the category the agricultural sector’s largest export earner.

Wood and wood product exports generated $17.2 billion in 2025. According to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, shipments are forecast to reach nearly $20 billion in 2026.

The United States and China are now Vietnam’s two largest markets for wood and wood products.

Exports to the US totaled nearly $6.7 billion in the first nine months. Although down almost 3.9% year on year, the market still accounted for around 50.4% of Vietnam’s total wood and wood product export revenue.

Shipments to China, by contrast, rose sharply. Exports to the country surged 40.4% to $1.98 billion over the nine-month period, making China Vietnam’s second-largest market for these products, with a share of nearly 14.9%.

Despite steady export growth in recent years, the industry faces a rapidly changing competitive landscape, said Ngo Sy Hoai, secretary-general of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Association, at a recent consultation workshop on the goods import-export strategy to 2030, with a vision to 2045. He pointed to the emergence of competitors such as India.

Vietnamese businesses previously competed mainly with other Southeast Asian countries. Competition has now widened, with each country bringing its own advantages in production and market development.

Hoai also acknowledged that many businesses in the wood and forest products industry still operate as contract manufacturers for foreign customers.

Retaining existing customers is already difficult, he said, while finding new markets and changing business models require even greater resources. Constraints involving capital, machinery, technology and production management mean the transition cannot happen quickly.

Businesses therefore cannot continue relying indefinitely on contract manufacturing. They need to make a decisive shift toward developing their own designs, creating new product styles and adding more value, Hoai said.

That shift is a task for individual businesses, but it must also be reflected in the country’s long-term export development strategy, he added.

Tam An