China surpasses Italy as world’s largest exporter of wooden furniture
mongabay.com
November 13, 2006
As reported by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), the latest figures from UN Comtrade confirmed that China (including Hong Kong) overtook Italy to become the world’s largest exporter of wooden furniture in 2005.
The total value of China’s wooden furniture exports rose from US$932 million in 1995 to US$7.15 billion in 2005. ITTO says that China’s surging furniture production has been driven by strong growth in both furniture exports and domestic consumption.
China is also the world’s largest consumer of timber. In 2005 the country imported 7.3 million cubic meters of tropical logs and 26 million cubic meters of logs in total.
 Exports of wooden furniture (US$ billion). Courtesy of ITTO. |
China’s “growing economy, a continuing ban on domestic harvesting and a zero tariff on log imports continue to drive total imports upwards” said the ITTO in its 16-30 June 2006 edition of Tropical Timber Market Report, a bi-monthly publication.