The total output of China's forestry industry rose 13% in 2008 to 1.33 trillion yuan ($194.7 billion), a senior forestry official said in a conference ended on Sunday.

China's foreign trade of forest products was $70 billion, 18% of the world's total and ranked second only to United States, said Yucai Li, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration.

Chinese production of rosin, lumber, bamboo products, fabricated boards and furniture ranked first in the world last year, Li said in an international conference for bio-economy in Tianjin.

Li said some 60 million people in China were employed in the industry.

As of the end of 2008, there were 709 national forest parks that had 250 million visitors.

China