Find wood export orders through fairs and e-commerce platforms

Trade promotion through many channels

At the press conference to introduce the 1^st Vietnam ASEAN International Export Furniture & Home Accessories Fair (VIFA ASEAN 2023) on the afternoon of August 17, Mr. Tran Ngoc Liem, Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ho Chi Minh City branch (VCCI-HCMC), shared that the wood industry continues to be one of the most difficult industries in the current period in terms of production and export situation.

Southeast Asia is one of the world's leading centers for manufacturing and supplying interior and exterior furniture and handicrafts. Vietnam is currently leading Southeast Asia in wood exports and second in Asia. The demand for importing wood from ASEAN countries is about USD 3 billion, but Vietnam’s export rate is less than USD 100 million. Therefore, finding markets for wood enterprises is very important.

"This is an opportunity for enterprises to take advantage and find markets through all trade promotion channels. Of which, fairs and exhibitions are still traditional channels. Although it is very difficult, enterprises are still persistently participating in fairs and exhibitions, through which they can find new customers as well as access new technologies and new products. Despite being a traditional channel, fairs and exhibitions are still an important and effective channel for enterprises," said Mr. Tran Ngoc Liem.

As one of the enterprises that have been able to find orders at wood industry fairs and exhibitions over the past time, Mr. Tran Huu Hoai, Director of Gia Nhien Co., Ltd., said that before the COVID-19 pandemic, the company always had orders from domestic and foreign customers right at each time it participated in wood industry fairs and exhibitions. After the COVID-19 pandemic, orders were much smaller than before; even most recently, visitors to the fair liked very much the company’s products, but they did not order immediately as before.

In parallel with actively participating in domestic fairs and exhibitions, Mr. Huu Hoai said that his enterprise also participated in trade promotion events in the US, but the situation was not very positive due to the general difficult situation. This fact forced businesses to look for orders by increasing costs for booth promotion activities on e-commerce platforms.

"I just got two export orders with two containers thanks to actively participating in promoting on cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba. It can be said that this is a good sign in the current general difficult situation," shared Mr. Hoai.

2,000 international guests register to participate in VIFA ASEAN 2023

In order to create a playground and support wood enterprises to find new business opportunities and export opportunities in the context of declining orders, VCCI-HCMC cooperated with the Vietnam Coconut Association (VCA) and Alliance Handicraft Wooden Fine Art Corporation (HAWA Corporation) to organize the Vietnam ASEAN International Export Furniture & Home Accessories Fair (VIFA ASEAN 2023) from August 29 to September 1.

Mr. Dang Quoc Hung, General Director of HAWA Corporation, said that VIFA ASEAN will be first held with the theme "Gathering all the best Southeast Asian furniture ", but is expected to attract approximately 200 enterprises with a scale of 600 booths participating in display and more than 2,000 international guests registering to visit.

This event gathers many prestigious domestic wood and fine art manufacturers and processors from Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces: Hanoi City, Thanh Hoa, Nam Dinh, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Binh Duong, Dong Nai, Long An, Binh Phuoc, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, etc., and countries and territories such as the United States, Korea, China, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.

At VIFA ASEAN 2023, there are many displays of diverse and rich product lines from many countries, including interior and exterior furniture, decorative products, handicrafts, decorative lights, raw wood, machinery and equipment, all kinds of accessories, etc., serving the export wood and fine art processing industry.

In addition, VIFA ASEAN 2023 also organizes more specialized seminars such as "Remove Barriers, Cross Limits: Solution to Increase Export Revenue for Vietnamese Businesses,", "Variation of Coconut in Interior Decoration," and "Impact of Net Zero: Updating Policies to Support Businesses in the Wood and Handicraft Industry."