RP furniture exports drop 8.22% in 2008

CEBU, Philippines – As the world’s furniture exports plunged by 5.7 percent in 2008, the Philippines furniture exports experienced a more dramatic decline by 8.22 percent.

A record collated by the PhilExport-Cebu revealed that the world’s furniture exports in 2008 only generated US$94.051 billion compared to US$100.245 billion it recorded in 2007.

China remains the biggest furniture exporter in the world with 29 percent share amounting to US$28.033 billion. China is closely followed by Italy with 11 percent, Germany 10 percent, Poland seven percent and United States with six percent.

According to PhilExport-Cebu report the total furniture exports in the Philippines last year only amounted to US$399 million from US$435 million it generated in the year 2007.

According to PhilExport-Cebu advocacy officer Jun Abines, furniture companies can view the latest statistics for furniture in i-Search facility.

“In the past furniture export companies had no quick access to the latest reports on furniture exports trade statistics and some companies had invest large sums of money to secure the latest in furniture trade statistics,” Abines said.

With i-Search, he said the latest information on export markets and trade statistics can be easily availed of. This project is being supported by Canadian government through Pearl-2, DED of Germany and CBI of Netherlands.

 PhilExport Cebu also serves exporters who require specialized market research information as well as credit worthiness background reports through the facility of Dun & Bradstreet.

Meanwhile, aside from this i-Search facility, PhilExport is also announcing the upcoming launching of its virtual showroom taking advantage of the e-Commerce platform.

The virtual showroom project is a web-based marketing tool wherein Cebu exporters can sell their products online through the Internet to customers around the world.

Foreign buyers can now also take advantage of eCommerce to shop export goods from Cebu using their credit cards or Pay Pal accounts.

According to a recently survey, eCommerce has increased by 41 percent even during the global financial crisis.

Many customers around the world now, prefer to shop and purchase goods online at the comfort and convenience in their homes and offices.

Abines said many Cebu-based exporters expressed great interest in having an eCommerce-capable facility or website of their own but the cost and technical requirements have prevented them to develop one for their respective companies.

PhilExport-Cebu will be offering this facility to help exporters cut cost, amid the challenging worldwide market. —Ehda M. Dagooc