The export earnings from furniture industry witnessed a 13.62-per cent negative growth in July, the first month of the current fiscal year, due to political unrest, industry people said.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau data, the earnings from the furniture exports were $2.41 million in July of the current fiscal year 2013-14, 13.62 per cent down from the figure in the same period of the last fiscal year 2012-13.
‘Political turmoil took its toll on the furniture export in last month. The industry is also facing a number of other problems,’ said Nadia Furniture managing director A Karim Mojumdar.
Industry people said despite a huge potential in the international markets, Bangladesh was facing a very difficult challenge from other manufacturing countries like China as its furniture industry was depended fully on imported raw materials.
The EPB, however, expected that the growth in the export earnings from furniture industry would be positive in the coming months.
The EPB data showed the export earnings from furniture were $2.79 million with a 61.27-per cent growth in July of the financial year 2012-13.
In 2012-13, the export earnings from this sector were $31.41 million which was 15.73 per cent higher than the earnings in the financial year 2011-12.
‘The furniture sector is growing. We should not consider the export position of the furniture industry on the basis of the export earnings in a single month,’ the EPB vice-president Shubhashish Bose told New Age on Thursday.
He said that lack of expertise and designs of international standard were the main reasons for the slow growth.
The furniture sector has an enormous potential both in local and international markets as the sector is labour intensive, Shubhashish said.
He stressed the importance of establishing an international standard design institute and training centre to develop expertise in the sector.
The EPB data since FY 2006-2007 showed a downward trend in the country’s soft furniture export.
According to the data which were published on the web site of Bangladesh Furniture Exporters Association, Bangladesh earned from furniture exports $8.16 million in FY 2006-2007, $5.49 million in FY 2007-2008, $4.44 million in FY 2008-2009 and $3.79 million in FY 2009-2010.
The sector witnessed 53.55 per cent fall in export of soft furniture over the last three years.
Karim Mojumdar said the export earnings from furniture industry were rebounding and many buyers were thinking to shift their orders from China. ‘They are focusing on Bangladesh.’
A good number of buyers expressed their interest to import furniture from Bangladesh but the political unrest has held them back, he said.
‘Recently we organised an international fair in Bangladesh. Thirty-five international buyers were registered to attend the programme but due to the political unrest only 15 of them attended the fair,’ Karim Mojumdar said.
Bangladesh Furniture Industries Owners Association chairman Selim H Rahman said the local manufacturers started exporting furniture to the USA, UK, Japan, Australia and India few years ago.
‘To grab more market share we have to increase our competitive edge but it is very unfortunate that we are importing raw materials with high duty,’ he said.
Selim, also the managing director of Hatil Complex Ltd, said that furniture industry was one of the most labour-intensive industry and about 3 million people were working in near about 85,000 enterprises and carpentry households across the country.
The export earnings from furniture industry would witness a significant growth if the government gives proper policy support including reducing duty on raw materials and giving cash incentive, he added.
-With New Age input
