Ukrainian furniture manufacturers in January-March of this year increased their furniture exports by 50% compared to the same period in 2019, to $247.4 million, while in the past five years (2015-2020) there was an annual increase of 13.5%, a member of the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers (UAFM) Oksana Donska has said. “Due to COVID-19, the global supply chains have changed a lot. Ukrainian furniture is becoming more and more interesting for the international community of professional buyers,” she said at a press conference on the problems of timber market legislation organized by the RivneInvest agency in Kyiv.
According to her, today a transparent timber market is very necessary for Ukrainian furniture manufacturers.
“The furniture and woodworking industries of Ukraine create a product with high added value. Each hryvnia of wood value turns into UAH 30-50 of the cost of furniture supplied both to the domestic market and for export,” she said.
Donska said that today more than 100,000 people work in the furniture industry for more than 9,000 enterprises, and the export of Ukrainian furniture for the past five years has been growing by 13.5% annually. Furniture is exported to 119 countries, including Poland (more than 35% export), Germany (16%), Denmark, Austria, Romania, and France. Poland and Germany use Ukrainian furniture for further sale in the world.
“But compared to the same Poland, which has approximately the same forest resources, we export 20 times less – if Poland in 2020 exported furniture worth $14.8 billion (the third largest exporter in the world), then Ukraine for only $750 million (39th place),” Donska said.
She said that on June 15 through June 17 2021, Ukraine expects about 2,000 guests from 53 countries who will come to visit the Furniture of Ukraine Business Expo (FUBE-2021) organized by the UAFM with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Development of Economy, trade and Agriculture.
“However, today the Association receives appeals from our members who complain about serious problems in their work due to the stagnation of the timber market. As a result, furniture makers do not receive furniture components on time, and contracts for the supply of finished furniture with retailers from Ukraine are broken. Ukraine’s reputation is on the line if it fails to implement contracts for the supply of furniture to the countries of Europe, Asia and America. If this situation continues for several more months, then Ukrainian enterprises will have to think not about development, but about survival,” Donska said.
Araks Group of Companies (Kyiv) in the end of September will open a new furniture trade center with a total square of 15,000 square meters in the village of Khodosivka of Kyiv region, a group’s press service reported. “A decision to open a new trade center and to develop Araks furniture network is carefully worded. We engross our business and we’re glad to cooperate with the new brands, which will be displayed at the new furniture center,” Araks group quotes one of its shareholders Harush Antonian as saying on Monday.
According to a press release, the new three-storey shopping center, 25 kilometers away from Kyiv, will consist of the shops with household goods: furniture, kitchen, lighting, floor coating, textile, decoration and others. Armenian classicism combined with modernistic forms is at the bottom of the architecture, the company said.
The first Araks furniture trade center with a square of 27,000 square meters at 110 Kiltseva Street opened in 2009.
In public cadastral map, Kyiv-based Business-Techno Plaza LLC is owner of the land plot with a square of three hectares on which the center was built.
