Timber businesses seek "aisle" between Covid-19

Many timber enterprises are trying to survive, not being "wiped out" by the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

Transformation of commodity items

Dien Quang Hiep, Chairman of Binh Duong Wood Processing Association (BIFA), General Director of Minh Phat 2 Company (MIFACO) said that in the current context, enterprises have only two choices. One is to try to find solutions to survive and prepare carefully the next steps so that when the epidemic is over, it can accelerate back to its pre-epidemic position; the other is closure and bankruptcy.

"Of course, no business wants to choose the second option, so every business must try to find ways to survive," Hiep said.

According to the reporter's research, nowadays, the way a number of units choose to overcome difficulties and survive is to change product structure or produce items to replace the previous ones imported in the domestic market.

The disruption of supply chains, including the supply chains of imported wood products from abroad, especially from China to Vietnam for domestic consumption, has created a void for these items in the domestic market.

A typical example in this story "filling the gap" is the case of Hoang Phat Co., Ltd. in Huu Bang commune (Thach That, Hanoi).

Currently, the company is researching items such as baby cots and child dining chairs before Vietnam often imported from China. Nguyen Duy Khiem, Deputy Director of the company said: "The company is moving towards changing the type of product to produce these products to supply to the domestic market, creating jobs for workers."

In addition, a number of household businesses in craft villages, with products serving the domestic market, have begun to shift to online sales. Typically, the Dong Ky Wood Association (Bac Ninh) has now established a group on Zalo, Viber and Facebook, including production households, households specializing in commercial production and households supplying input materials, with 179 members currently participating in these sales groups.

Team members often share the products they make, offer prices on the group and ask team members to connect with buyers in need.

The idea of ​​joining a group and selling products online also appeared in Huu Bang trade village.

According to Nguyen Duy Khiem, the company currently operates mainly in online sales, via Zalo, Viber and order production according to the order channels on these groups.

Reorganize production capacity

In addition to changing sales methods and changing product structure, many businesses in the timber industry said that businesses took advantage of opportunities in the stage of reducing the scale of operations to reorganize production scale and capacity.

Dien Quang Hiep said that the labor productivity in Vietnam's timber industry is still about 20% lower than the labor productivity of China's wood industry.

The production and business activities slowed down during this period, creating a chance for businesses to look back on their production and business activities, find out what has not been effective, and then propose measures to improve production efficiency and labor productivity.

“Before the epidemic, the company was operating at full capacity, even continuously working overtime, hardly resting. This is a good time to sit back and look at what needs to be improved, improve skills for public workers, improve labor productivity, get ready for post-epidemic activities,” Hiep emphasized.

Currently, many wood associations and enterprises are actively carrying out preparations for raw materials and production, ready for returning to production and business right after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

The HCMC Association of Fine Arts and Wood Processing (HAWA) is currently actively organizing online discussions with member businesses about measures to reduce the impact of a pandemic and about activities to prepare to be able to return to production as quickly as possible when the pandemic passes.

These initiatives demonstrate the efforts and determination of businesses in the industry, aiming to choose the "survival and development" plan rather than the "closure and bankruptcy" option.