Report On The 14th International Famous Furniture Fair Dongguan, China

Furniture World Magazine

General Survey The 14th International Famous Furniture Fair (Dongguan) was successfully held in Houjie, Dongguan from 17th to 21st of August, 2005. In these five days, there were 87,160 professional participants, including 8,510 overseas professional buyers, 40% increase compare to last year. Fair activities included an opening cocktail party, experts’ forum, closing & awarding banquet and serial professional rap sessions and product promotions. More than sixty public media outlets attended, including: the China News Service, Nanfang Daily, Guangdong TV Station, Dongguan TV Station, Sina, Alibaba, and 15 professional media/magazine from abroad like Italy, America, Germany, Japan and South Korea all conducted interviews and filed reports on the fair. An increasing number of professional participants visited Dongguan. Attantence has increased from 58,000 in 2001 to 87,000 in 2005. 3F attracts 80 percent of the brand name furniture manufacturer from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. For domestic furniture dealers, 3F is a must-visit fair, regarded as the window for discovering furniture market trends. 3F attracts a greater number of overseas visitors each year and has an excellent reputation. The number of foreign visitors increased 40% in 2005 compared with the same period of last year, and they spent 3.2 days at the show on average. This year, 3F became the UFI approved event and is the only Chinese furniture fair that can be found on UFI website at present. Professional attendees come from all over the world. Close to 40% hailed from Guangdong Province, over 50% were from inland and about 10% from overseas. The Chinese furniture industry is seeking exporting opportunities worldwide and as a result, overseas participants are steadily increasing. This past fair registered the following proportion of overseas attendees: Europe 32.1%, North America 16.7%, Australia 5%, Africa 4%, Mid-East 13.4%, South East of Asia 16.1%, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan 12.7%. The percentage of furniture manufacturers who attended increased 27.9% compared to the last session of 3F, and the proportion of distributors kept steady. The actual proportions were: Dealers: 52.7%, Furniture Manufacturers: 27.9%, Design Companies: 8.6%, Associations: 2%, Others: 8.8%