BEIJING - The output of China's forestry industry rose 24.1 percent year-on-year to 2.83 trillion yuan ($448.09 billion), the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said Thursday.

The country produced 165 million cubic meters of wood-based panels and 490 million square meters of wood and bamboo flooring this year, up 7.7 percent and 2.2 percent year-on-year, respectively, head of SFA Jia Zhibang said at a conference.

China's forestry imports and exports hit $116 billion this year, up 23.6 percent from a year earlier, Jia noted.

The sector's emerging industries also saw rapid growth. The output value of forest tourism increased over 10 percent year-on-year to 240 billion yuan, Jia added.

The industry's structure has been improved this year, with the ratio of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the sector adjusted to 36 to 54 to 10, from 39 to 52 to 9 last year. The weight of the latter two industries has kept steady growth, Jia said.

The country will further tap the sector's potential to speed up development, and strengthen the role of technology to promote the industry's competitiveness, Jia said.

In China, forests are defined as woods covering an area of more than 1 mu (about 667 square meters) with a crown density -- the amount of sunlight blocked by plant material -- at or above 20 percent, according to the SFA.