Furniture industry fights importers

BY PAUL ALLEN Business reporter allenp@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

THE furniture industry is suffering from a "disconnect" between the needs of consumers and what's being manufactured, said Harold Davis, executive director of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC).

The industry has been lagging in recent years due to poor quality and design, reliability, inadequate training, and technical and financial support, a recent survey found.

The survey commissioned by the JBDC looks at the supply side of the local industry. Another survey looking at the market aspect of the industry will be completed next month.

"There was a lot of speculation about the furniture industry but we have found that many of those articles and conversations are not evidence-based," Davis said. "We wanted some real empirical data so we could build a proper programme on that data."

The survey found that lumber supply is adequate, although some manufacturers did not know who the suppliers were or how to find affordable lumber, he told the Business Observer, adding that there has been an active replanting programme over the past few years.

The government committed $100 million to the industry in September, fearing that it was being dominated by imports. Employing over 12,000 people, the domestic industry exported just under $15-million worth of furniture in 2010. This is a far cry from the almost $15-billon worth that was imported.

The furniture is known to be of good craftsmanship, Davis said, but "the gap is arising where the consumers need design-led products. There's a perception that we have a problem getting reliable products from local producers."

Only 15 per cent of manufacturers use automated machines, the survey found. Even more telling, "few use the computer in their business processes", said Davis. Computer use is approximately five per cent, making the problems of old technology even worse.

HEART will be collaborating with JBDC on improving the skills of workers in the industry, in part by adjusting the institution's curriculum. They will also be buying computer-aided design software for students to use.

People need to be retrained in this technology, said Davis. "Living spaces are getting smaller. We need to be looking at multifunctional, space-saving furniture now. If we were keeping pace with demand and expectations, then the import figure would not have climbed so much."

The JBDC plans to create a database of the players in the furniture industry that will help it to keep in touch in the future. It also intends to build a resource centre to improve design capabilities.

"We don't back losers. We believe that this is one of the indigenous industries; it's something that we're naturally good at. We need to build on that and fight to remove the perception that [local] manufacturers are unreliable."