Dongguan furniture show officials provide strong overview of China's furniture industry

Furniture show organizers in China often do a good job communicating the results of their events. Attendance numbers aside - which are always somewhat dubious in nature for any furniture show - these reports touch on highlights ranging from design award winners to the state of China's furniture industry.

While not all the information always gets into Furniture/Today, the reports offer good background and insight into the shows. What's even more impressive is the show organizers' ability to communicate this information in readable phrasing - albeit slightly broken English - that English speaking people can understand.

Organizers of the International Famous Furniture Fair Dongguan recently took this to a new level with the publication of a 50-page book called "China Furniture Market Overview." While the title is somewhat blasé, the material inside is far from it. It's a terrific overview of the history of the Chinese furniture industry over the past 100 years or more.

Some of this information Americans may already know. For example, the booklet talks about how the industry moved to mainland China from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1990s to take advantage of cheap labor. Most producers, it claims, moved to the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions and investors from the United States, Italy, France, Denmark, Germany and Southeast Asia soon began to establish plants in these regions too. During this period, the industry grew to some 50,000 manufacturers that employ 5 million people.

The Pearl River Delta, the book says, has about 48.3% of the manufacturing base, while the Yangtze River Delta region has about 13.1%. It says southwestern China has about 12.1% of the manufacturing capacity and northeastern region is home to another 7.6%.

Other topics of interest include materials and machinery suppliers, development of the home accessories industry, wood and timber resources and the leather industry.

Finally, there are insights into furniture distribution in modern China and the opportunity for global brands to tap into this market. The book further acknowledges journalists from the Nanfang Daily Media Group who contributed to the project.

The depth and breadth of the Chinese furniture industry is tough to capture in a few hundred pages, much less 50. But this is a good place to start for those wanting a quick study on how it got to where it is today. I know I'll keep a copy on my desk for future reference.

To get your own copy, visit www.3f.net.cn or e-mail fbf@3f.net.cn.