The Impact of the Asian Drivers on Sub-Saharan Africa's Wooden Furniture Industry

The wood furniture value chain, a large and rapidly globalising sector, has the potential to play an important role in promoting growth and alleviating poverty in SSA. It is a a resource-intensive sector, providing opportunities for countries where timber grows rapidly and cheaply, and helps to facilitate productive linkages between industry and agriculture and urban and rural areas. However, the evidence presented here on the SSA industry makes for blunt reading. Most of the continent's furniture industry is inward oriented and involves the informal sector using low-grade timber to produce basic products for middle- and low income domestic consumers. Moreover, China has become a growing presence in global furniture markets, and SSA firms are unable to compete effectively with it. As a consequence, SSA furniture exports have come to be threatened by a combination of falling prices, reduced profitability and evaporating market shares.