By Razi Syed<\/p>\n
KARACHI: About nine Pakistani companies will take part in Index International Furniture Exhibition being held from November 1-5 at Dubai, industry sources said here Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Pakistan Furniture Exporters Association (APFEA), Chairman Turhan Baig Mohammad said the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has asked the association to arrange Pakistani delegation to take part in the exhibition, which will be held at Maktoum Hall at Dubai International Exhibition Centre.
\n
\n\t\t
\nThe nine Pakistani companies including two from Lahore and one from Rawalpindi, are showcasing their products at Index, which is the largest furniture and interior design exhibition in Middle East. Hundreds of companies from 60 countries are also participating in the show.<\/p>\n
He said with the world furniture trade projected to grow in the coming years, Pakistan is keen to increase its export market. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This sector could touch $500 million export target by 2013 if we are provided training centers for skill workmanship, women development schemes and high tech machinery,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. The industry has planned Export Strategy 2013 under the directives of the government and Technology Up gradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC) would provide technical and training assistance to the sector, he added.<\/p>\n
Mohammad said the USA and European Union remain major buyers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our export to the UAE is indicative of regional trade possibilities and there is need to explore new avenues in this regard,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he remarked.<\/p>\n
A senior member of APFEA, Mrs Ayesha Mudassir said that Pakistani exports were facing hardships due to threefold increase in cost of timber used for furniture exports and tough competition with international exporters like China, India, Vietnam and Malaysia.<\/p>\n
She said utility costs, improper wood seasoning, substandard finishing and packing and poor designs and quality and not meeting world standard and requirements were other hindrances in enhancing our exports.<\/p>\n
She said the ignored furniture sectors, which has a big potential of exports was also facing the smuggling of sheesham wood to Dubai in garb of raw material for making boats.<\/p>\n
All possible efforts should be made by the government in order to save the precious value added product\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unlawful export, she said adding that the industry was also facing the sheesham wood depletion due to low plantation and illegal cutting of trees.<\/p>\n
A federal timber advisory council should be formulated to keep check on the illegal activities on tree plantation and its illegal cutting.<\/p>\n
Mrs Mudassir said formulation of a federal timber board, comprising private and public sector members on the board is necessary in order to restructure the sheesham wood plantation and ban on illegal export in the garb of material for boats to Middle East countries.<\/p>\n
Another member, Asif Khan said Pakistan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s furniture export to UK, Canada, Dubai and USA stood $10.9 million in 2014 and the APFEA is planning to cross the mark of $25 million in 2014, for which the furniture exporters would also take part and put on display the products at this exhibition.<\/p>\n
Our exports to Italy stood around 14.5 percent of the total exports, Germany 9 percent and UAE 17 percent during July-June 2014, he added.<\/p>\n
He said the USA share of world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imports stood around 40 percent to $28 billion (73 percent in wooden furniture), Germany and UK some 9 percent and Europe 25 percent except these two countries. He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are in touch with Italian and German firms in connection with setting up of training centers besides setting up two Furniture Cities, one each in Karachi and Peshawar.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
He said Pakistan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s furniture exports to the UK and Ireland have been steadily growing over the last few years and the participating companies are expecting to procure large export orders from the UK buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Razi Syed KARACHI: About nine Pakistani companies will take part in Index International Furniture Exhibition being held from November 1-5 at Dubai, industry sources said here Tuesday. Pakistan Furniture Exporters Association (APFEA), Chairman Turhan Baig Mohammad said the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has asked the association to arrange Pakistani delegation to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-indonesia-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}