Some recent figures published by the Timber network reflect that after a serious decline (-13%) in 2013, European Union (EU) wooden furniture imports from outside the region (non European Union countries of which most are Asian, China and Vietnam being major sources of furniture imports into the EU) have begun recovering in 2014 with a slow yet positive reversal of the previous trend. In the first six months of 2014, wooden furniture imports from non-EU countries into the EU have increased by 3% over the same period in 2013.

This recovery varies immensely depending on the type of products, the main winners being upholstered seats (+5%), dining/living room furniture (+6%) and bedroom furniture (+5%). The products that experienced a decline in imports were un-upholstered seats (-2%).

If we focus specifically on Vietnam and Vietnamese produced furniture, exports to the EU were up +6% for the first semester of 2014 (+5% in the case of Chinese manufactured wooden furniture) while Indonesia and Malaysia were on the loosing end of these statistics as their exports to the EU declined over the same period.

Some notable increases in the imports of wooden furniture per country for this first half of 2014 were reflected in countries like Spain (+14% to 70 million), the UK (+7% to €813 million), Germany (+1% to €452 million), Italy (+2% to €91 million), Sweden (+4% to €85 million) and Denmark (+4% to €83 million).

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