Published on : Monday, January 6, 2014
According to Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. furniture sector trustee Myrna Bituin, the furniture industry has experienced rise in local demand on its products which allowed the industry to increase by 10 per cent this year.
The strong local demand was pushed by increasing activities in real- estate sector, particularly building more hotels, resorts, condominiums and house units.
Myrna Bituin said, “The local market buys billions of pesos [worth] of furniture overseas…. The majority of companies that do researchers, are open to the market, invest in design and in their people, they have always survived. Europe is [also] a good market…. Europe is very traditional, they can sell your product for 10 to 15 years. So you become good in what you are doing because it is the same product that you have been doing for the past 10 years.”
Likewise, Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) National President Nicolas De Lange told the Philippines News Agency earlier that the industry has a good number of revenue in the domestic market. De Lange noted that 73 percent of the total earnings of the furniture sector are from the domestic market, while the remaining 27 percent are export revenue.
He further continues, “Because of the domestic demand, a lot of our companies, with all the hotels, the construction, resorts [and] casinos that are going up, bit of that is being felt by the furniture industry. So, those who have traditionally exports only, some of them are now in the domestic market enjoying the benefits of that market.”
In 2013 the furniture industry fell short to its 10-percent target growth on export revenue. Still, the sector made a positive growth of 5 percent to 6 percent, according to CFIP.
Domestic revenue of the furniture industry can make up the deficit in the target growth for furniture-export sector because of the positive domestic market performance, the industry added.
Tags: Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP) National President Nicolas De Lange, local demand, Myrna Bituin, the furniture industry
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