Vietnam exported wood-based products totaling 404 million U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, up 42.1 percent over the same period last year, a local industry association said Friday.

To facilitate woodwork production and export, relevant companies in Vietnam should establish material wholesale markets in the northern, central and southern regions, and join hands with others in specializing in a specific phase of the process of turning out a certain finished product, said the Vietnam Wood and Forest Products Processing Association.

Vietnam shipped abroad the products valued at more than 1.9 billion dollars in 2006, rising 21.9 percent over 2005. Major markets include the European Union, the United States, Japan and China's Taiwan.

The country, home to 1,200 woodwork producers, has some 1.4 million hectares of forests for production purposes with capacity of 30.6 million cubic meters of wood, but most of the volume is slated for production of paper, plywood and fiber.

Source: Xinhua