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Foreign wood furniture clutters domestic market
While Vietnamese enterprises are busy making wood furniture for export, the domestic market is flooded with imports.
Shops that specialize in wood furniture in HCM City are filled with products boasting diversified designs and showy colors, attracting a lot of visitors. Analysts say most products displayed at furniture shops now are imports.
At shops on Ngo Gia Tu Street, only a few are made of natural timber by domestic workshops. Most are made of artificial timber, introduced as imports from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.
According to Tran Hoang Trung, the owner of one shop, most imports come from China, have diversified designs and offer matching collections. For example, those who want bedroom furniture can buy beds, wardrobes and even dressing tables at one time. Consumers can buy parts of products to assemble as they like.
Huynh Van Hanh, Deputy Chair of HCM City Handicraft and Wood Industry Association (HAWA), noted that the wood furniture market in Vietnam is very big, with a growth rate of 15-20 percent annually. Vietnamese firms make products for export in large quantities, earning some three billion dollars a year, but they “concede” the domestic market to foreign products.
A recent survey shows that only 20 percent of wood furniture revenue on the domestic market belong to Vietnamese enterprises, while the other 80 percent goes to producers from China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Dien Quang Hiep, Director of Minh Phat Wooden Furniture Company, observed that Vietnamese companies prefer making products for export. Foreign importers always place big orders whereas domestic firms ask for small quantities and demand regular design changes. Also, to sell products domestically, producers need money to invest in a distribution network.
Market analysts say, while Vietnamese firms are busy with making wood furniture for export, foreign producers have “conquered” Vietnam’s market. A lot of Chinese enterprises imported timber from Vietnam at low prices, just 4-5 million dong per cubic metre. They now export the finished products back to Vietnam at much higher prices.
Currently, domestic furniture distributors import 30-40 containers of wood furniture products from China every month as finished or half-finished products. They then assemble the products in Vietnam and sell them on the domestic market. Even big furniture producers also import furniture from China.
According to Nguyen Ton Quyen, Secretary General of Forestry Products and Wood Association, foreign products have been imported recently in big quantities, because the import tariff on finished products has been lowered to 0-3 percent. Quyen remarked that the imports are very diversified, from wardrobes and beds to simple products like dressing tables and bookshelves.
Market forecasters say that most Chinese imports are made of artificial timber and have prices lower than domestic products by 20-30 percent. However, many shops still sell imports at high prices, telling buyers that these are high quality products. In fact, analysts agree, Chinese products might be attractively designed, but they are not durable.
vietnamnet, NLD
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