Brazilian group to show 2nd time in High Point
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, March 6, 2005
High Point — AFECOM, the Brazilian Furniture and Upholstery Assn., has signed a three-year lease for a 2,000-square-foot showroom on the third floor of Showplace to display products from some of its 21 member factories.
It will be the second High Point showing for the coalition, which showed in a temporary 1,200-square-foot space in the Radisson Hotel in October.
Andreia Gentilini Milan, AFECOM's export officer, said the group had "good contacts" at the October show. "That was the beginning," she said, adding that AFECOM members hoped to double their exports to the United States this year to $1.5 million. She said the earlier show gave members insight on how to make the right products for the American market.
The association represents wood and upholstery manufacturers from the furniture-making region of Bento Goncalves in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Members of the group are seeking to form partnerships with companies looking for an alternative to China and the Pacific Rim.
Milan said the Brazilians "cannot compete against China" in price. "We have to have something different." That something is better quality, exotic veneers like imbuya (Brazil's walnut) and better leathers, she said.
Brazilian manufacturers would have reaped a better benefit if the U.S. Commerce Department had established higher tariffs for Chinese-made wood bedrooms. And the strengthening of the Brazilian real to 2.6 reals to the U.S. dollar (compared to 3.2 reals to the dollar during the October show) is hurting exports.
But a big advantage the Brazilians have, according to Milan, is that it takes 17 days of transit for containers to reach U.S. shores versus 45 days from China.
In the first half of last year, Brazil was the ninth-largest foreign source of furniture to the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce and Furniture/Today market research.
For 2004, Brazil shipped $374.4 million worth of furniture to the United States, up 40% from 2003, according to Rafael Molon, international relations specialist for ABIMAD, a group of Brazilian furniture and accessory manufacturers.
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