Taipei International Furniture Show opens tomorrow

After a six-year hiatus, the Taipei International Furniture Show returns to the Taipei World Trade Center tomorrow with the aim of targeting foreign buyers.

"Although there are a handful of furniture expositions held every year, foreign buyers who attend are usually disappointed as these shows are mainly for import and local trading purposes," Fred Chen (陳丘), chairman of the Taiwan Furniture Manufacturers' Association (TFMA, 台灣區家具公會), told reporters yesterday.

To offer a business-to-business export platform for foreign buyers and local vendors, the association decided to join hands with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) this year to revive the large-scale furniture fair, he said.

TFMA statistics revealed that for the first 11 months of last year, furniture exports totaled US$1.15 billion, showing a marginal growth of 1.8 percent from US$1.13 billion during the same period the previous year.

Local furniture production started to shift to China in the early 1990s, in an attempt to capitalize on cheaper labor and production costs.

Last year, China was the world's largest furniture exporter with an output value of US$13.7 billion. Around 50 percent of that amount was generated by Taiwanese vendors setting up facilities there, according to Chen.

However, due to escalating labor and land costs over the past few years, Taiwanese vendors have gradually switched their focus to Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, he said.

"The Chinese market is no longer that attractive to us. Some of the Chinese authorities would rather welcome high-tech firms than furniture makers to establish production facilities in their provinces, and this prompted us to look to Southeast Asia," he said.

To add value and differentiate themselves from their Chinese rivals, local companies are now branching out into the brandname business and overseas markets, Chen added.

"This gives us greater flexibility as we are no longer limited by clients' orders for contract manufacturing," he added.

Taiwan Mirror Glass Enterprise Co (台明將企業) general manager Jackson Lin (林肇唯) said that Taiwan should cling to its current advantage in glasswork and metal furniture.

The company -- which supplies around 80 percent of Swedish home furniture retailer IKEA's glasswork -- will rope in nine other companies to promote their wares at the "Glasswork Pavilion" at the furniture show.

Running through Saturday at Exhibition Hall I, the expo will feature nearly 1,000 booths belonging to 211 companies. It is hoped that the expo will attract around 1,500 foreign buyers and 20,000 local visitors, according to TAITRA.