The furniture and related cluster has been drawing a path of recovery, throughout 2021, after a challenging year of 2020, revealed to Jornal Económico Gualter Morgado, executive director of the Portuguese Association of Furniture and Related Industries ( APIMA). Between January and August, exports from these sectors grew 22%, compared to the same period of the previous year. Compared to 2019, which was the best year ever in the sector in terms of exports, with around 1.9 billion euros generated in sales abroad, “current values ​​are only 3% below, which is representative of the rapid recovery operated by the companies”, horizontal Gualter Morgado. Current data allow us to face the future with optimism, as it forecasts “an increase in sales to traditional markets, such as France (33% of the total) and Spain (26%)”, and growth in new markets, with great potential for companies Portuguese , “As are the cases of the United States of America or the Middle East”. The speech by Vitor Poças, president of the Portuguese Wood and Furniture Industry Association (AIMMP), is in line with that of Gualter Morgado. For the leader of AIMMP, this sector is a positive “case study” in Portugal. “A billion euros in exports grew in just nine years, from 1.5 billion euros to 2.6 billion euros (66.55%) in 2019. There is, therefore, the hope that” our entrepreneurs and workers continue to fight and work to achieve a value of exports in 2021 very similar to that recorded in 2019, that is, very close to 2.6 billion euros”. Vitor Poças believes that Europe is recovering rapidly and, “basically through the contribution of our exports to countries outside the EU, it may be possible to reach this figure”.

The challenges
For Gualter Morgado, Executive Director of APIMA, the Return of International Fairs is fundamental for this sector, “which needs these forums for global exposure, as around 90% of the turnover results from sales abroad”. Having overcome this obstacle, which has harmed companies in the last 18 months, a set of other challenges are hampering the growth of national companies. “The exponential rise in the custom of raw materials, as well as international transport,“ is crushing our companies, which are forced to increase the final value of the product, under penalty of wasting the already meager margins to prepare”. Also according to Gualter Morgado, “the scarcity and exponential increase of these essential products for the furniture and related industries are a huge challenge”, which requires a concerted response at the international level, given Europe’s dependence on the Asian market.
Vitor Poças, president of AIMMP, points out that the sector has been responding positively to the barriers that permanently appear in Portugal. Either because “pre-bankruptcy” was entered into and “we have to face the difficulties and bear the increase in taxes”, or because context costs continue to rise permanently or because energy costs soar to non-comparable values ​​​​na Europe or else because the prices of raw materials reached almost prohibitive values.