This presentation was made by Nicolaas De Lange, Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Chamber of Furniture Industries in the Philippines and presented in March 2012 at the BSP's Year-End Philippine Economic Briefing.

1. Chamber of Furniture Industries
of the Philippines
Nicolaas K. De Lange
Vice President and Corporate Secretary

2. As one of the countries’ Creative
Industries, how is the Philippine
Furniture Industry performing?

3. 15- Year Furniture Exports Performance
15-
1995 to 2010 (FOB In USD)

4. 15-
15 - Year Furniture Imports Performance
1995 to 2010 (FOB in Million USD)

5. 2010 FURNITURE EXPORTS
COUNTRIES EXPORTS IN MILLION USD
CHINA 33,723
INDONESIA 1,963
JAPAN 1,470
KOREA 665
MALAYSIA 2,471
PHILIPPINES 170
SINGAPORE 202
TAIWAN 1,220
THAILAND 1,172
TURKEY 1,414
VIETNAM 3,436
Source: Council of Asia Pacific Furniture Associations

6. Kenneth Cobonpue

9. How do we translate the Philippine Creative
Brilliance into products that are not price
sensitive?
• Marketing/Branding
• Quality materials
• Craftsmanship + Technology

10. Homestyle products Strategies and
Programs of the government:
Integrate promotional efforts of the gov’t:
• YES! Support our INTERNATIONAL
SHOW which we have integrated with
CITEM’s show
• Support efforts by the industry to market
directly to countries we have identified.
BRANDING IS NOT CHEAP, WE CAN’T DO
IT ALONE

11. Homestyle products Strategies and
Programs of the government:
Build brands based on green approach
– YES! But lets work on our raw material
situation
• Sustainable raw materials not in place +
moratorium on logging (EO 23)
• Red tape in importing materials (DAO 99-46) +
duties
If we want to save our forests, then why regulate
imports?

12. Homestyle products Strategies and
Programs of the government:
Maximize benefits from free trade agreements:
• Yes! We should sell more to our neighbours
rather than our traditional markets that are
down (US and Europe)
• But we should also look into Tariffs because
we allow our competitors to come into the
Philippines duty free when the local industries
have to pay duties on raw materials.

13. Homestyle products Strategies and
Programs of the government:
Link up furniture and furnishings/decor
industries with the tourism industry
• YES! Include furniture in BOI Incentive
package to Hotel and Resort Investors to
encourage them to buy local and not to
import.

14. Other suggestions
• Get DOST to help add technology to the
industry to complement the craftsmanship
• Bring in more Foreign Direct Investors into
our industry
• Review Labor laws to address issues of
Productivity and costs
• Address Inter-Island Shipping Rates
• Get us involved in effort to stop smuggling
to level the playing field in the domestic
market.

15. • We support the Presidents thrust to hone
and mobilize our people’s skills and
energies as well as the responsible
harnessing of our natural resources
• Please keep us in the loop, hear our voice,
we stand ready to do our part.

16. Chamber of Furniture Industries
of the Philippines
Nicolaas K. De Lange
Vice President and Corporate Secretary