German furniture exports
2018 record high

Furniture "Made in Germany" is particularly popular abroad. Almost every third piece of furniture (32.4%) from German production is exported. According to Jan Kurth, Managing Director of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM), sales abroad increased by 2.2% to 10.9 billion euros last year.

"This is the highest export value ever measured. The Chinese growth market developed particularly strongly with an increase in exports of 14.7 percent. But the important markets in Europe also showed a positive trend. For example, we were able to sell 6.6 percent to France, the industry's most important export market, 4.4 percent to the Netherlands and even 11.1 percent to Italy," says Kurth.

The share of EU countries in total German furniture exports stood at 70.3% in 2018, followed by European countries outside the EU with 13.3%, Asia with 8.3% and North America with 5.3%. Asia, with an export increase of 3.8% compared to the previous year, showed the highest dynamics, exports to the EU increased by 2.8%. However, the most important non-European market for German furniture manufacturers still remained the US, where furniture worth € 513 million was sold (+ 0.5%) "Unfortunately, business with the US at the end of last year was also due to the uncertain trade environment lost momentum. The upcoming Brexit has already slowed down furniture sales to Great Britain in 2018 by 5.3 percent," says Kurth.