Production, exports and sales of the furniture industry, which for decades was Poland’s flagship industry, have declined sharply, reports Polish daily Dziennik Pravna.
Director of the Polish Chamber of Commerce of Furniture Manufacturers Michal Strzelecki I have to admit:
“Two years in a row have never been such a crisis for the industry. In the first quarter, the industry was still counting on a full-year recovery. Today we know that this will not happen. Even if the economic situation is very good, it will be impossible to make up for the decline of the previous months. Today we are fighting to end the year with as little negative results as possible.”
In the first half of the year, the Polish industry sold furniture worth PLN 28.3 billion, which is 6% less than last year. As the owner of one of the furniture companies explained to the newspaper Tomasz WiktorskiThis is due to the decline in demand abroad, where 90% of furniture is supplied. This is mainly the German market, which accounts for 35-40% of Polish exports.
The reasons for the problems in the furniture industry include high prices for raw materials from Polish state forests, as well as high energy and fuel prices, which have led to increased production and transport costs. According to Strzelecki, Polish companies are losing ground to manufacturers from Bulgaria and Romania and are increasingly forced to compete with suppliers from China.
