Webinar spotlights furniture trade opportunities in UK

London (VNA) – The webinar and online business matching themed “Vietnam – UK Furniture Trade Opportunities” took place on April 19 for participants to discuss opportunities, challenges and ways to boost exports of Vietnamese furniture to the UK.

Held by the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) in collaboration with the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of Ho Chi Minh City and the Vietnamese Trade Office in the UK, the event brought together a large number of firms in the wood and furniture industry from both countries.

It provided an overview of the UK’s furniture market, consumer sentiment and trade policy on imported furniture, and forecast potential trends of furniture business in the European country. British experts answered Vietnamese firms’ questions about the market and briefed them on major furniture fairs, notably the January Furniture Show, one of the biggest in the UK.

It also featured a business-to-business (B2B) matching session between UK buyers and Vietnamese manufacturers.

In his opening remarks, Vietrade Director Vu Ba Phu said Vietnam’s furniture exports have seen strong growth despite impacts of COVID-19, disrupted supply chain and rising shipping costs and input prices. Last year, the country shipped abroad more than 14.8 billion USD worth of wood and furniture, up 19.7 percent year on year, making it the world’s largest exporter.

In 2021, Vietnam exported nearly 267 million USD worth of wood and furniture to the UK, a year-on-year increase of 16.4 percent. The shipments exceeded 72 million USD in the first quarter of this year, up 14 percent./.