The furniture industry will turn to the local market to survive as global demand has lessened due to the economic crises in the European Union and the United States.
This was announced by Nicolaas de Lange, national president of the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines.
Europe and the US are two of the biggest overseas markets for Philippine-made furniture.
De Lange said that as the overseas crises could linger in the foreseeable future, it would be best not to wait for global demand to recover.
De Lange said the Philippines has been importing more furniture than what was being exported. He said imports were valued at $300 million a year, an amount much higher than the industry's revenues from exports.
"We want a share of that market," de Lange said.
Based on official records, furniture and wood-based furnishings bring in an average of $1 billion a year — but the bulk of exports are not furniture sets, but flyboard and plywood.
Furniture exports from the Philippines have declined since the global financial meltdown began in 2007, and recovery is not yet in sight.
De Lange also said most of the local demand for furniture and furnishings come from developers of skyscrapers mostly located in Metro Manila.
"They have not been making orders from us. We are now going out of our way to entice them to buy their needs from us," de Lange said.
Aside from changing its strategy to tap the local market, the group had earlier asked the government to liberalize the importation of wood products and that of the purchase of plantation wood from local growers. - BM, GMA News
