“Although the fair is smaller, due to the crisis, it is much, much better than in previous years. You will see many new products, you can spend hours looking at the products in the stands,” said Aurica Sereny, President of the Romanian Furniture Manufacturers Association (APMR). One third of the furniture companies present at the fair, namely 117 firms, are participating for the first time in BIFE, including companies from Vietnam, Malaysia, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and Poland.
Daniel Egri, General Manager of Mobex, a major company in the field, with net sales worth €14 million last year, and an 80 percent share of exports in turnover, is quite optimistic, and hopes the market will bounce back. “I feel that things are not getting any worse, the main problem is the financial deadlock. The local market has demand and potential, but Romanians are snobs and would rather buy from Italians, perhaps furniture produced by Mobex for €5,000 than buying directly from Mobex at a price of €2,000.”
The local market fell 17 percent in the first part of this year, but July and August marked a rebound of the market. APMR officials estimate a 10-15 percent decline for the whole year.
The furniture industry is one of the few with a trade balance surplus, considering that over 60 percent of the furniture production is exported. Most furniture exports go to countries in the European Union, half to the German, French, and Italian markets alone.
