Malaysia's Furniture Exports Set To Rise Under TPP - Matrade

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will give further boost to the Malaysian furniture exports as trade among member states, particularly the US, is set to rise, the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) said. Matrade Deputy Chief Executive Officer Susila Devi said Malaysia's furniture export to the US accounted for 30 per cent of its total exports in 2015 at US$677.61 million (RM2.8 billion), up 23 per cent from US$556.6 million (RM2.3 billion) in 2014.(US$1=RM4.13) "We already have a strong foothold in the US market and this proved that we have met their stringent product requirements," she said after the Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) 2016 Prize Presentation Ceremony here Thursday. She said Matrade would continue to carry out more capacity building programmes to encourage more Malaysian companies to learn about US product-safety requirements to enable them to increase their exports to the country. Susila said of RM9.14 billion in total furniture exports recorded in 2015, wooden furniture remained the largest contributor at RM7.26 billion or 79 per cent. She is also optimistic that the target of RM10 billion in furniture sales could be achieved following the uptrend since 2014 (RM8 billion) despite the challenging economic situation. Susila said India as well as several Eastern European and Latin American countries were new markets that Malaysia would be focusing on this year. "India is a growing market as they are building a lot of shopping malls, offices and institutions. So, they will need more furniture. "Our furniture are well-known to them, not because of their prices, instead because of our ability to deliver high-quality products," she said. She said Malaysian companies should conduct market research consistently to find out the trends in terms designs, functionality and segments as they needed different approaches to ensure their marketability. -- BERNAMA