8 May 2023

Vietnam's wooden furniture market share in total EU and UK imports remains low, while the market share in the US, Canada and Japan is quite high.

5 major import markets for wooden furniture in the world

According to data from the European Statistics Agency (Eurostat), the EU is the largest import market for wooden furniture globally. Despite the effects of the epidemic and armed conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, the value of EU wooden furniture imports in 2022 still increased quite a bit, reaching 24.4 billion euros (equivalent to 26.8 billion USD). ), an increase of 6.6% compared to 2021. As of January 2023, due to a sharp drop in consumer demand inflation, the value of EU wooden furniture imports reached 1.87 billion euros. (equivalent to 2.1 billion USD), down 6.8% compared to January 2022.

In the supply market structure, Vietnam is the 7th largest supplier of wooden furniture to the EU market, but the value of imports from Vietnam only accounts for 2.8% in 2022 and accounts for 3.4 % in January 2023.

The United States is the world's second largest import market for wooden furniture. Information from the US International Trade Commission said that the US import demand for this item in 2022 reached US$25.4 billion, up 6% compared to 2021.

In the first 2 months of 2023, the value of US wooden furniture imports reached 3.3 billion USD, down 20.4% compared to the same period in 2022. Inflation in the United States remained high, which caused limit spending on non-essential items including wooden furniture.

Besides, the US real estate market is still in a quiet phase, negatively affecting the demand for imported wooden furniture. Accordingly, in the short term, the demand for imported wooden furniture in the United States has not been able to improve.

In the supply market structure, Vietnam has become the largest wooden furniture supply market for the United States since 2019, and by 2022, Vietnam will continue to lead.

The proportion of US imports from Vietnam is quite high, accounting for 36.3% of the total import value in 2022 and 37.1% in the first two months of 2023. As the proportion in the United States increases, it will inevitably face higher risks and challenges regarding the investigation and application of trade remedies from the US side.

Therefore, businesses need to pay attention to the origin of goods and raw materials. At the same time, actively research, assess risks, as well as monitor early warnings about the possibility of investigating trade remedies with wooden furniture.

Next is the UK market, in 2022, the demand for British wooden furniture imports will increase slightly, despite the economic situation being affected by many impacts. The increased demand for imports is due to people's strong spending after a long time of separation.

However, the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has negatively affected the UK economy, causing consumer demand to slow down in the second half of 2022. As of the first 2 months of 2023, consumption trends The demand for British wooden furniture imports dropped sharply, reaching $670.8 million, down 31.9% over the same period in 2022.

The UK is the world's third largest import market for wooden furniture, import demand is always high, but the proportion of imports from Vietnam only accounts for 7.1% in 2022 and accounts for 6.1%. in the first two months of 2023.

In the last 2 years, the UK market has been unstable and sometimes disrupted the supply chain due to the influence of Brexit, Covid-19, military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, economic sanctions against Russia. Vietnamese enterprises can take advantage of this opportunity to increase the export of wooden products to the UK thanks to the incentives of the UKVFTA Agreement.

Canada and Japan are also the two main import markets for wooden furniture globally. The proportion of wooden furniture imports of these two markets from Vietnam is also quite high.

According to the International Trade Center, Canada and Japan are both members of the CPTPP Agreement to which Vietnam is a member, in addition, between Vietnam and these two markets have signed separate trade agreements. Making full use of the tariff preferences provided by these Agreements contributes to increasing Vietnam's wooden furniture market share in these markets.

Plenty of room for businesses to exploit

According to the General Department of Customs, it is estimated that in April 2023, the export value of wood and wood products reached 1.1 billion USD, down 3.3% compared to March 2023 and down 31.4 % compared to April 2022. Generally, in the first 4 months of 2023, the export value of wood and wood products is estimated at 3.9 billion USD, down 30.4% over the same period in 2022. In which, the export value of wood products is estimated at 2 .64 billion USD, down 37.2% over the same period in 2022.

Mr. Do Xuan Lap - Chairman of the Vietnam Timber and Forest Products Association - said that the prospect of exporting wood and wood products in the short term has not yet shown many positive signs, because inflation is still high, leading to high inflation. to consumers to tighten spending, reducing import demand in many main markets for Vietnam's wood and wood products.

According to experts, currently, the export value of wood and wood products to Europe, Oceania and Africa only accounts for a small proportion of the export market structure. However, there is a lot of potential to boost the export of wood and wood products to the European region, especially the wooden furniture group because of the large market demand, but Vietnam can only meet a small part.

On the side of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Import-Export Department said that in the 5 largest wooden furniture import markets globally, which are the EU, the United States, the UK, Canada and Japan, the proportion of imports from the EU and UK from Vietnam is still at a low level, while import demand in these markets is very large. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for Vietnamese wooden furniture exporters to exploit.

"Typically, the EU market, with an average import demand for wooden furniture reaching US$23.1 billion/year in the period 2018 - 2022, but imports from Vietnam only account for 2.6% on average. total import value of the EU during this period", the Import-Export Department cited.

Source: congthuong.vn