world news - 15.08.2008
Vietnamese woodcraft exports to Japan expected to rise
According
to Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) experts, with an
annual growth rate of 4.8%, Vietnam is currently among the three
largest woodwork exporters to Japan. In the first six months of this
year, Vietnam exported $163 million worth of wood products to Japan,
the country’s second-largest wood-product importer after the US.
However, the agency said there were potential opportunities to further
boost exports as Japanese consumers tended to prefer products from
ASEAN countries, which account for nearly 72% of goods exported to
Japan. JICA
senior expert Kenji Togawa said that to boost exports to Japan,
Vietnamese woodwork products should push to catch up with the tastes of
Japanese consumers. Togawa said that the Japanese youth prefer
convenient products with reasonable price tags, adding that they often
selected products made of artificial and cultivated wood. The old,
meanwhile, like more classical and durable wood products. Besides
quality, Japanese consumers also paid due attention to product’s
exteriors; therefore, packaging and detailed information labeled on the
products, including origin, materials, size, usage, warnings and the
name of the producer were also necessary to attract Japanese consumers. To
meet the myriad tastes of Japan’s fastidious customers, Togawa
recommended that Vietnamese woodwork producers enter Japan’s market
through Japanese importers, as the importers would be persons who could
provide Vietnamese exporters with timely and necessary information
about the tastes of Japanese consumers. Staying
in touch with such importers would also help Vietnamese producers map
out better development strategies with more effective access to the
Japanese market.
See also:
- — Sweden has most renewable energy in the EU
- — IWF 2008 – International Woodworking Machinery & Furniture Supply Fair — USA
- — Wooden Volkswagen Beetle Gives Us Woodenly Timber
- — Georgia accuses Russia of starting forest fires
- — Woodworking machinery: negative results also in the second quarter 2008
