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Trade in the world furniture industry
In 2006, the global furniture trade amounted to 79.2 billion Euros or an increase of 8.7% compared with 2005. This total figure balances slight increases for EU and NAFTA figures and high growth rates for newe EU member states and Asian countries.

The EU furniture manufacturers exported 39.9 billion Euros of furniture (40% of their production and 50.4% of the world total).

The Asian countries are now the second largest furniture exporting region. They exported some 24.8 billion Euros (+13%) and accounted for almost 32% of total exports. China has definitively become the leading exporting country with some 16.4 billion Euros (+12%).

Contrary to the NAFTA zone (this zone exported 9.8 billion Euros) where the exports are mainly extra-zone, the Asian exports are mainly shipped to the EU and the USA. Intra-zone trade mainly concerns exports to Japan.

The NAFTA zone was the largest furniture importing zone with total imports totalling 27.5 billion Euros (of which 23.2 billion Euros into USA).

Almost half of the imports of the USA are originated from China. 63% of its total imports were shipped from Asian countries.

The EU is the second furniture importing zone with a total of 10 billion Euros (+ 11% - not including intra-EU-25 zone exports). As for the USA, more than half of imports are Asian furniture. EU extra-EU imports from China accounted for some 46% of total EU imports.

The top 25 furniture exporting countries are responsible 85% of world furniture trade.

By country, China has become the largest furniture exporting with 20% of global exports. Italy follows with 11% of world total. Germany, Poland and Canada complete the top five.


The largest importing countries are the USA (23.2 billion Euros and a deficit of 20 billion Euros), Germany (7.4 billion Euros), the UK (5.9 billion Euros) and France (5.2 billion Euros). These countries are also the countries with a highest penetration ratio of imports (26% for USA; 38% for Germany; 43% for France and 36% for the UK) and they show the largest trade deficits.