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Vietnam’s exports of wood and wood products continued to grow in the first half of 2026, despite the impact of political conflicts, rising logistics costs, and increasingly stringent green standards from importing markets.
The United States remains the largest consumer market, accounting for nearly 50% of Vietnam’s total exports of wood and wood products. This is followed by China with 15% and Japan with 12.9%. However, there is a clear divergence in market trends. In the first five months of the year, exports to the United States decreased by 8%, while exports to China increased by 49% and to Japan by 5.1%. The Netherlands saw the strongest growth, while South Korea experienced the sharpest decline among the top 15 export markets.
Vietnam is currently among the top 5 largest wood product exporters in the world , with products present in nearly 170 countries and territories. However, Vietnam’s market share only accounts for about 7% of the total global wood product import demand, indicating significant room for growth.
The biggest bottleneck currently is the dependence on the US market, with approximately half of the industry’s export revenue concentrated there. This makes businesses vulnerable to changes in trade policies, tariffs, or trade protection measures. Therefore, diversifying markets to the EU, Japan, China, India, and the Middle East is becoming an urgent requirement.
The Production Forest Code (MSRT) has only been piloted on approximately 25,500 hectares in 5 northern provinces, while the whole country has nearly 4.9 million hectares of planted forests. The area of forests certified for sustainable management has reached about 868,000 hectares, but this is still insufficient to meet the demand for raw materials for export.
Interpol announced that from 15 September – 15 October, law enforcement agencies comprising police, customs, border security and forestry and wildlife authorities from 134 countries made a total of 4,640 seizures during Operation Thunder 2025.
Indonesia’s furniture and crafts exports reached US$2.8 billion in 2022 and the government hopes that exports will increase to US$5 billion in 2024.
The Ministry of Industry has two strategies to improve profitability in the sector. First, greater emphasis on the domestic market as the size of this market, especially the middle class segment, continues to expand. The second is exports to non-traditional markets for example India and the Middle East where growth in the property sector is relatively stable.
The Indonesian Furniture and Craft Association (HIMKI) chairman, Abdul Sobur, revealed that exports to the EU declined in 2022 so HIMKI members are now investigating the Middle East markets such as Qatar, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
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