Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The world’s wooden interior décormarket is predicted to grow at 3.5 percent in 2018 and continue expanding, providingopportunities to Vietnamese businesses to increase exports of the products. 

If Vietnamese businesses optimise the material sources theyhave and make the best use of trade promotion activities, their export earningsare expected to surpass 8 billion USD. 

According to Huynh Van Hanh, Vice President of the Handicraftand Wood Industry Association (HAWA) of HCM City, in the past 15 years, thewood industry has maintained a growth rate of 8 to 15 percent per year despiteglobal economic fluctuation. 

The main issue of the wood-processing enterprises in Vietnam isthat they are focusing on a market section with low added value, mostlyconcentrating on outsourcing to foreign clients. 

To further develop the domestic wood sector, businessesshould pay attention to selling abroad the whole space of high-end interiordécor instead of doing outwork and selling separate products. 

Meanwhile, the Vietnam Timber and Forest Product Associationasserted that it was necessary to make full use of domestic material sources tocreate a breakthrough for the sector. 

Statistics show that Vietnam has more than three millionhectares of acacia, with an output of 150cu.m of wood per hectare per year. Byexploiting only half of the total area, Vietnam will have 22.5 million cubicmetres of wood per year, meeting the material demand of the whole sector forboth domestic and foreign markets. 

Moreover, acacia wood is much cheaper than imported wood,which will help facilitate a closed production chain for made-in-Vietnam woodenproducts. 

Along with optimising material sources, trade promotionactivities should also be strengthened to help increase domestic sales. 

According to Hanh, trade fairs and exhibitionsare currently considered the most economic and effective means of promotion.

Therefore, HAWA has informed its members of many events abroad in 2018. Itwill support them in joining these events to seek partners and broaden markets. 

Hanh said that exhibitions in the country had also drawn anincreasing number of enterprises, especially small ones, which would help themknow about the number of deals secured immediately. 

He noted that the Vietnam International Furniture and HomeAccessories Fair 2018 attracted 4,528 firms, while the 2017 event gathered only2,000. Transactions at the event also increased this year. 

Besides traditional trade promotion, digital marketing ispopular in many countries, such as the United States, Germany, Italy and China.

But it is hard to find Vietnamese wooden décor firms on the internet asVietnamese firms are yet to efficiently exploit the digital medium.-VNS/VNA