Only three exhibitors from Serbia at Cologne furniture fair – CCIS announces adoption of wood industry development strategy

The International Interior Show is currently in progress in Cologne, and among the 1,360 exhibitors from 50 countries is also Serbia, represented by three companies, reports Deutsche Welle.

– The Chamber of Commerce of Serbia will define the Cologne fair as one of the important fairs this year and present its wood industry as one of the important strategic industries of the Serbian economy – stated Jesa Ercic, Secretary of the Association of Forestry, Wood Processing and Furniture and Paper Industry of the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, for DW.

Although the wood industry in Serbia has been improving, being the second sector in the processing industry to constantly record growth in both the number of business entities and the number of employees, the number of exhibitors at IMM Cologne is surprisingly small, DW estimates.

– We will start forming the group again. We wish to bring together all furniture manufacturers so that they might make decisions and action plans together – Ercic says.

He also announced the adoption of Serbia's wood industry development strategy in the coming period, in line with Serbia's EU accession process.

– We need a strategy which will define the wood industry as one of the strategic industries. We need to define wood as a strategic material, as Serbia has a local base of raw materials, good educational institutions and designers. It is necessary to work on one's own brand, as we're not supposed to be a pale copy of Italian designers – Ercic points out.

Furniture manufacturers in Serbia complain that there's still a lack of transparency and availability in procuring raw materials, which is one of the key problems, and they believe that they also need security in order to enter investment cycles, as it is hard to remain competitive in the demanding world market without making new investments, says DW.

If Serbia had used 145,000 cubic meters of wood, the amount it exported for EUR 45.3 million, in 2016, it could have had goods worth over EUR 260 million, and pundits say that as many as 5,000 new jobs could have been created as well, which, unfortunately, didn't happen, DW concludes.

Privredna komora Srbije

Udruženje za šumarstvo, preradu drveta, industriju nameštaja i papira PKS

Cologne International Interior Show

IMM Cologne

CCIS

Jesa Ercic

wood industry

export of wood from Serbia