German Furniture Foreign Trade 2018
Export hit kitchen furniture
After the annual turnover of the German furniture industry in 2018, the Herford associations also published the figures for the German furniture trade for the past year - with similar results in the individual segments.
Kitchen furniture worth more than 2 billion euros was completed in 2018. Compared to the previous year, the industry thus exported 5.52% more. Most kitchen furniture continues to go to France with a value of over 500 million euros. By far the Netherlands (over 288 million euros) and Austria (over 198 million euros) follow. By contrast, 83 million euros were generated with China, 8.6% less than in 2017.
Further back is the import of kitchen furniture. In 2018 it was 11.28% less than in 2017 (over € 94 million). Most kitchen furniture comes from Italy (-31.4%), closely followed by Lithuania. Other major import countries with a value of over 10 million euros imported kitchen furniture are Poland and Austria.
Upholstered furniture foreign trade: exports and imports decline slightly
Foreign trade (export) of the German upholstered furniture industry, on the other hand, fell slightly in 2018, with a minus of -2.24% compared to the same period of the previous year. The companies exported goods worth € 704.37 million.
The German upholstered furniture manufacturers had to post declines in their three most important export countries. Exports to Switzerland dropped by -8.4%, to Austria by -5.7% and to France by -1.7%. Significant growth in exports was recorded in Italy (+ 22.9%), the USA (+ 27.0%) and Spain (+ 16.6%).
But imports also fell by -1.84% to 2.02 billion euros in 2018. For example, imports from Poland increased by + 0.3%, China by + 2.1% and Slovakia + 4.0%, while they increased by -6.5% from Hungary and -2.4% from Romania % and from Italy even by -15.7%.
Living, dining and bedroom furniture: minus on both sides
Similar to the upholstered furniture, the foreign trade of living, dining and bedroom furniture has developed. Exports in this segment fell by 3.9% in 2018 to a value of around € 870 million.
Among the ten largest customers, only Belgium (+ 0.8%), the Czech Republic (+ 14.6%) and Poland (+ 4.8%) introduced more residential, dining and bedroom furniture from Germany than in 2017. The decline was particularly dramatic in the number one country Austria (-7.3%), the Netherlands (-10.4%) and the USA (-9.0%).
Imports in this segment also declined in 2018 (-6.05% to EUR 1.536 billion). The decrease is noticeable in Poland (-7.7%) and China (-16.5%).
