HANOI, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The Vietnamese wood industry needs to focus more on branding to increase its competitiveness in the world market and add export value, local newspaper Vietnam News reported on Monday.

The country's wood processing industry has developed rapidly, with exports rising steadily in recent years, but enterprises largely exported their products under foreign partners' brands, causing them to lose 25 percent to 30 percent of added value, according to Nguyen Van Dien, director of the Forestry Production Development Department under the Vietnam Administration of Forestry.

A lack of branding development policy, experience, capital, human resources, and management capabilities to set up overseas sales networks or build brands are among the main reasons, he said.

Developing overseas markets would require large production capacities, something that few Vietnamese enterprises have, he added.

The country is home to around 300 craft villages and 5,580 enterprises engaged in wood processing, of which, small and medium-sized ones accounted for nearly 97.8 percent, said the newspaper.

Vietnam exported nearly 14.6 billion U.S. dollars worth of wood and wood products in the first 11 months of this year, with China, Japan, and the United States among the major markets, according to the country's General Statistics Office.