Azerbaijan, Baku, November 3 / Trend, A. Akhundov /
The demand of Azerbaijani population in furniture is 60 to 70 percent is met at the expense of domestic production, Ilkin Manafov, Marketing Director of the country's biggest furniture producer - Embawood - told reporters on Thursday.
"There are thousands of furniture producers in Azerbaijan but Embawood alone covers 10-12 percent of the market and goes ahead of its nearest competitor by 10-12 times," Manafov said.
He said one of the key factors of furniture market development in Azerbaijan is the tradition to give a bride wedding portion where furniture is the key element.
"While furniture-related expenses in CIS States are $22-$23 per capita, this figure is 1.5 times higher in Azerbaijan. However, in Germany, for instance, this indicator equals around 250 EUR a year, an eightfold increase against Azerbaijan," Manafov said.
While in Azerbaijan furniture gets renewed once in about 15-16 years, this happens once in 2-3 years in Europe.
Zohrab Mehdihanov, head of the company's studies and sophistication division, says conservatism of Azerbaijani furniture consumers reduces to zero as years pass.
"Azerbaijani consumers are very conservative, but this peculiarity is getting a bit weaker over several recent years. In some past years, the demand in modern style furniture in Azerbaijan grows, and this tendency will continue. Along with that, the classical style will always be present on the market," Mehdihanov said.
He said cappuccino and walnut furniture but primarily white furniture have been in fashion in Azerbaijan since last year.
"White furniture has been the most popular around the world for the three recent years, but in Azerbaijan it became popular last year. This tendency is expected to continue," Mehdihanov said.
The State Statistics Committee of Azerbaijan says in January-September 2011 the country produced furniture worth 28.3 million manat, a decrease of 4.3 percent against the respective period of last year. In the observed period, investments in the production of furniture were 4.3 million manat, an equivalent to 0.1 percent of the GDP.
The official exchange rate on November 3 is 0.7868 AZN/USD.