China’s total forestry output is expected to exceed 7 trillion RMB ($1.06 trillion) in 2017, according to Chinese newspaper Economic Daily.

China has become the fastest-growing and most influential country in forest products manufacturing, trading, and consumption, said Zhang Jianlong, director of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), at a forum on forestry development on Dec. 5

“China has a forest area of 208 million hectares with 15.137 billion cubic meters of forest stock, covering 21.66% of the country,” Zhang noted.

China tops the world in the production of furniture, timber floors, wooden plates, bamboo wood, rosin, and affordable forest products, he added.

The rapid development of emerging forestry has become a new growth point, according to the head of SFA. In 2016, the total output of China’s forestry for the first time exceeded 6 trillion RMB.

However, the scale of the industry is still generally small, with low intensification, Zhang pointed out, adding that over 80% of the forestry enterprises are small- and medium-sized. In addition, labor productivity per capita is less than 1/6 of that in the developed countries.

In the next few years, Zhang said, China will optimize traditional businesses such as forestry cultivation, wood manufacturing, paper making, forestry herbicides, and forestry equipment. According to him, the country’s total output of forestry industry will hit 8.7 trillion RMB in 2020.