Vietnamese businesses, Vietnam Furniture Matching Week 2022 (VFMW-2022), New Zealand's importers and retailers of furniture all participated in the seminar.
The workshop has provided in-depth information about the New Zealand furniture market, helping Vietnamese businesses more comprehensively assess this market, and at the same time supporting business connections between the two countries.
Delegates join in the symposium (Photo: baoquocte.vn)
Speaking at the opening of the seminar, Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Van Trung emphasized the importance of economic and trade cooperation in the Vietnam-New Zealand Strategic Partnership, emphasizing the advantages to be exploited of the two countries, both members of new generation multilateral trade agreements such as CPTPP, RCEP or AANZFTA (ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Trade Agreement).
Vietnam and New Zealand are two complementary economies, which clearly show in the two-way trade in timber and wood products. New Zealand is Vietnam's fifth raw material wood market. Vietnam is an important source of finished wood products for New Zealand.
The Ambassador highly appreciated the initiative to exploit the HOPE online platform to organize activities to connect businesses of the two countries during difficult travel conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the seminar, experts from Big Save Furniture Company, New Zealand's second largest wood furniture importer and distributor, said that most of New Zealand’s furniture businesses want to diversify their supply, regardless of the supply, not belonging to one market, and Vietnam is always the first choice.
The speakers recommended that Vietnamese businesses should build a longer-term vision, expand their product portfolio, invest in design, automation and robotics, and pay attention to the origin and sustainable development criteria of products.
Participating in the wood products supply chain for the New Zealand market, Vietnamese businesses can access and take advantage of the innovative and creative capacity that is New Zealand's strength today.
Currently, there are more than 100 Vietnamese enterprises supplying wooden furniture to nearly 80 New Zealand importers. Vietnamese imported furniture is popular with New Zealand consumers. In 2021, Vietnam's wooden furniture export turnover to New Zealand will reach 56 million USD, up 40% over the same period in 2020, and triple the figure from 2011.
As New Zealand's second largest furniture exporter, Vietnam only accounts for 7% of the wood furniture market share of New Zealand (market size is 1.5 billion USD), therefore, there is still plenty of room for Vietnamese businesses to exploit this high potential market./.