Nghe An: 330 million USD in forestry exports and the desire for 'green gold'

330 million USD is a really big number if we look at the total export turnover of the entire Nghe An agricultural sector in 2022, which only reached 487.5 million USD; while the total export turnover of the province was 2.54 billion USD, of which goods export reached 2.19 billion USD.

Comrade Phung Thanh Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development informed about the export situation of Nghe An Forestry sector at the working session between the provincial leaders and the Provincial Socio-Economic Advisory Group, which took place on the afternoon of February 23, 2023. Photo: Thanh Duy

Curious about the export scale of Nghe An forestry industry compared to the whole country, I dug deeper. The leading position in the country is a locality in the Southeast region - Binh Duong province. Data released by the Binh Duong Provincial Statistics Office shows that in 2022, this province "pocketed" 6.1 billion USD from exporting wood and wood products, the industry with the highest export turnover among the 9 key export industries of the land of Thu.

Meanwhile, the total export turnover of wood and wood products of the whole country in 2022 reached 15.85 billion USD. Thus, Binh Duong accounts for more than 38% of the total export turnover of the whole country, so it is easy to understand why people often compare the province, which was only re-established in early 1997 on the basis of separation from Song Be province, to the "wood furniture capital" of Vietnam.

Produced at Thuan An Wood Processing Joint Stock Company (Binh Duong). Photo: baobinhduong.vn

But the interesting thing does not stop there. Accessing the data published by the Binh Duong Statistics Office, I also saw that by 2022, this province will only have a planted forest area of ​​more than 4,000 hectares; the exploited wood output is only about 10,000m³, exactly 10,525.1m³.

Having become the "wooden capital", the people of Thu are not "resting on their laurels". They have the ambition to bring the export turnover of the wood processing and furniture manufacturing industry to 9-10 billion USD in the next 3 years and 12-13 billion USD by 2030. At the end of 2022, the Provincial People's Committee approved the Project "Developing the wood processing industry in Binh Duong province to 2025, with a vision to 2030", which clearly states the construction of 9 specialized wood processing industrial clusters with an average area of ​​70-75 hectares/cluster... to realize their ambition.

If comparing forest area and timber output, it is clear that Binh Duong is too modest compared to Nghe An. Our province currently has the largest forest and forestry land area in the country with about 1.008 million hectares of forested land, including 173.9 thousand hectares of forest and 45.84 thousand hectares of planted but not yet forested; 788.99 thousand hectares of natural forest; coverage by 2021 reached 58.41%, being one of the provinces with the best and largest forest coverage in the country; accounting for nearly half of the forest area in 14 provinces in the North Central and Central Coast regions combined (about 2.4 million hectares). Each year, Nghe An province exploits about 1.8 million m³ Wood, mainly Acacia mangium. Output products can be wood chips for export or provide input materials for the wood processing industry, including Binh Duong.

Forests in Western Nghe An. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Of course, Binh Duong is just an example for reference and learning, because to become the "capital" of a specific industry requires many factors, input materials are just one of them. With the advantage of being in the most dynamic economic region in the country, a traffic system connecting to the international, logistics, and convenient social infrastructure, Binh Duong has seized the competitive advantage to find a way and turn ambition into practical efficiency. As for Nghe An, in the context of more difficult traffic and social infrastructure, it still has a long way to go if it wants to make its mark in the wood and wood products industry, even though the province owns a huge amount of "green gold" with a huge potential.

On March 31, 2021, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 509/QD-TTg on the establishment of the High-tech Forestry Zone in the North Central region in Nghi Lam, Nghi Van, Nghi Kieu, Nghi Hop, Nghi Xa communes (Nghi Loc district) and Dai Son commune (Do Luong district) with an area of ​​618 hectares.

This is the first high-tech forestry zone in the country, consisting of 3 main functional sub-zones forming a continuous chain from forestry seed production; wood and non-timber forest product processing; training high-quality labor resources; to a trading floor combined with an exhibition to introduce raw wood and processed products from wood and non-timber forest products.

Workers work at the wood processing factory of May Forestry Company in Nghia Dan Industrial Park. Photo: Thanh Duy

I think this is a correct and appropriate policy, an opportunity for Nghe An to become a "magnet" attractive enough to attract businesses to "invest" in developing the forestry industry along the value chain from seed production, developing the wood industry and wood products, to promoting and introducing products when investment projects here enjoy preferential policies.

However, as our ancestors concluded: “Without flour, we can make paste”. Along with the formation of the first high-tech forestry zone in the country, Nghe An needs to simultaneously and effectively resolve many challenges if it wants the forestry industry to develop as desired.

The most current issue is the need to promptly review and adjust the planning of 3 types of forests associated with land use planning and plans to arrange and balance forestry land funds according to forest types in a reasonable manner, avoiding people living next to forests without benefiting from the forests, even in many places people are "stuck", even though they have invested in planting forests but when it comes to exploitation, they violate because this area is in the planning of special-use forests; associated with that are support and promotion policies so that people can feel secure in planting forests and sticking to the forests. In addition, forests need to achieve FSC Sustainable Forest Management Standards if they want to export products to Europe, America;...

How to protect the forest, people can have a prosperous life, even get rich from the forest is a question that many people in Western Nghe An, a vast and extremely fertile land. I once read somewhere that: "If you are hungry, you have to crawl on your knees; if you want to protect the forest, you have to stand up straight". Nghe An forestry industry is in a transformation, hoping to take off to turn "green gold" into "green bills" (USD - PV). On that path, people, especially those living next to the forest, living by forestry, need to accompany as an important subject, so that there is no longer a scene of "yellow eyes" because of the forest, but on the contrary, receive "pure gold" from the forest. At that time, protecting and developing the forestry profession associated with the wood processing industry and wood products will be truly sustainable.