The wood industry is showing signs of branching out after the chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forestry Product Association said wood export would reach US$4.3 billion for this year, up $400 million on 2011.

Industry insiders also forecast that export would increase towards the end of the year thanks to rising demand in the world market.

Ton Quyen said although the world woodwork market has shrunk 30 percent, the domestic wood industry has not been significantly affected, adding that the remaining 70 percent remained a great opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to tap.

Moreover, local wood producers and exporters are not dependent on bank credit so they have not faced the same financial challenges of producers and exporters in other industries.

According to the General Statistics Office, wood export turnover hit nearly $3.4 billion in the first nine months of this year, representing a year on year rise of 20.2 percent. The US, China and Japan were major importers of Vietnamese wood products during the period.

The country has roughly 4,000 wood producers and exporters besides 30,000 households doing work related to the industry.

Chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City (Hawa) Nguyen Chien Thang said Vietnam , which ranks sixth in the world for woodwork exports, will likely see wood exports grow by $15-20 billion in revenue in the next 10-15 years.

However, experts also urged the industry to restructure, saying that the industry’s growth contains potentially unsustainable factors that could seriously impact future expansion.