Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2019
Fineon Exchange is in Milan to participate in the 2019 “Salone Internazionale del Mobile”, the global benchmark event for the furnishing and design sector.
Fineon Exchange management team met with various Italian & European furniture manufacturers and exporters to discuss how to boost their competitive edge, enhance innovation and increase trade through financing their export receivables to emerging and developing markets.
The European furniture industry faces a variety of economic and regulatory challenges including manufacturing growth in emerging markets, improved logistics (reduced export costs from India, China etc.), declined tariffs on foreign trade, increased demand for low-cost items within the EU, increased raw material, labor and energy costs within the EU and consumer demand for sustainable products.
Around a quarter of the world’s furniture is manufactured in the European Union. This represents an €84 billion market that corresponds to a €28 billion consumption of 10.5 million tons of furniture per year. The furniture industry in the European Union employs approximately 1 million European workers and consists of, predominantly, SMEs with around 85% being micro enterprises, 12% of companies being small, while medium-sized companies account for 2%.
In Italy, furniture exports are increasingly targeting emerging markets in Europe (Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine) and in the Middle East and North Africa (UAE, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia).
In 2018, these two macro-areas made €1.471 billion in profit for Italian furniture exports.
