Origin traceability key to boosting local wood industry

Origin traceability has become an urgent issue, an inevitable trend, and a mandatory requirement in import-export procedures and quality management of products.

In recent times, the authorities have effectively implemented management and origin traceability to prevent trade fraud, illegal exploitation, transportation, and storage of forest products.

The central coastal province of Quang Tri has licensed 56 factories producing commercial forest products. Of the total, 47 factories are active with a capacity of over 1.5 million tons per year, accounting for 78.2% of licensed capacity.

Wood production at a local workshop. Photo: T.T

There are also 144 licensed commercial forest product processors, mainly producing finger-jointed wood, veneer, sawing, wood furniture, and civil carpentry for domestic purposes, providing jobs for thousands of people.

Most of the materials purchased by local businesses and manufacturers originate from local forests, while some are purchased from neighboring provinces such as Quang Binh and ThuaThien Hue.

According to wood exporters, high-value markets such as Japan, the US,and Europe have strict requirements on origin traceability, sustainable forest management certificates, environment protection...

To maintain the export market, businesses are required to prove the product origin, FSC certificate, and other required documents. Otherwise, they will lose their competitive advantages.

To effectively implement the traceability of forest products, local rangers have taken stronger measures to disseminate the criteria for business classification to local producers and processors.

The annual law dissemination conference serves as a place where rangers can provide regulations on the traceability of forest products to forest owners, organizations, and individuals related to local forestry production activities.

After one year of adopting Circular 26/2022/TT-BNNPTNT dated December 30, 2022, by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development regulating the management and traceability of forest products, and Decree No 102/2020/ND-CP released by the Government regulating the Vietnamese timber legal security system, the provincial Department of Forest Protection has completed the traceability of more than one million tons of wood of various types originating from planted forest, and nearly 7,900m3 of imported natural wood.

At the same time, the Forest Protection Department has advised the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to compile the rules on confirming the origin of the wood before importation as per Decree 102/2020/ND-CP and submit the rules to the Quang Tri Provincial People’s Committee for enactment.

The implementation of traceability and imported-exported wood management is strictly guaranteed as per legal regulations on forest product management, providing businesses and processing facilities with favorable conditions for the consumption of goods.

Compared to Circular 27/2018/TT-BNNPTNT regulating the management and traceability of forest products issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2018, Circular 26 has removed obstacles and added new regulations that meet the practical requirements on management and traceability.

However, according to local authorities, there are still problems in the implementation process. For instance, Circular 26 regulates that wood exploited from the forest owned by organizations and individuals requires no confirmation from local rangers when trading and transporting, making it difficult for traceability.

Most local wood traders and businesses are small and only export processed wood items, making it difficult for surveillance and traceability. Local households, individuals, and businesses lack cooperation with rangers and often miss the deadlines for reporting legal forestry product portfolios.

In order to implement the origin traceability and business classification with efficiency, forest rangers need to increase their patrol frequency in the area, and understand the local conditions to keep the forest development up to date.

They need to accurately prepare statistics of harvested wood output for traceability purposes, and communicate with and instruct local forestry enterprises to update their records of import-export items and report the product’s origin as per Circular 26 and other current regulations.

Forest product processing companies are required to prepare a list of forest products certified by the local ranger agency when purchasing wood from planted forests, wood with the same name as natural wood, scattered trees, and home garden trees invested by organizations, individuals, households, and communities.

In addition, to ensure the traceability of materials, forest product processing companies should prioritize purchasing wood with a sustainable forest management certificate.

Bao Binh - Huy Anh