HANOI: Cambodia exported about 50 percent more timber to Vietnam by value in 2015 than the year before, overtaking Laos as Vietnam’s top supplier, according to official data gathered by U.S. conservation group Forest Trends.
The increase came ahead of an abrupt freeze on all timber exports to Vietnam that Cambodia imposed on Monday as part of a crackdown on illegal logging in the eastern provinces.
“Data from Vietnam customs shows that Cambodia has become Vietnam’s largest timber exporter in 2015,” said Xuan Phuc, a Southeast Asia forest trade and finance analyst for Forest Trends.
According to the data, he said, Cambodia’s timber exports to Vietnam shot up 53 percent, from $253 million to $386 million. At the same time, he added, exports from Laos to Vietnam fell 40 percent from $601 million to $360 million.
In a report the group released last year, Forest Trends said the timber Cambodia exported to Vietnam in 2014 added up to 154,000 cubic meters, over half of it consisting of Beng, Thnong and Kra Nhung, among the rarest and most coveted varieties of wood in the region. Kra Nhung, or Siamese rosewood, has also been designated a protected species in Cambodia with stringent export conditions.
