More furniture producers from Muar, the furniture city of Malaysia, will exhibit at the 20th anniversary of the Malaysian International Furniture Fair (MIFF) in Kuala Lumpur from March 4-8th next year.

The Muar Furniture Association (MFA), one of the strongest industry groups in the country, expects a 30% increase in its participation following the successful debut of the MFA Hall with 80 companies at MIFF 2013. MFA had entered into a strategic alliance with the organiser, UBM Asia, to participate exclusively in MIFF. This has resulted in significant market advantages for both and has further strengthened MIFF’s position in Southeast Asia.

The launch of the MFA Hall had nearly doubled the presence of Muar exhibitors at MIFF from before. Muar has 700 furniture manufacturing companies, which accounted for 45% ent of Malaysia’s RM8b worth of furniture exports last year.

Karen Goi, general manager of MIFF, says: “We are delighted to welcome more exhibitors from Muar. This is a very positive outcome from our strategic alliance with MFA and it will also benefit our trade visitors directly because they will have more buying choices, value and get more business contacts. MIFF will continue to work hard to ensure that all our exhibitors and buyers will gain as much return as possible from the fair.”

Neo Chee Kiat, president of MFA, says: “We are very happy with our partnership with a global organiser like UBM. During MIFF 2013, our exhibitors were able to sell to more countries and approached by buyers from small emerging markets who were willing to pay for quality products. We would like to have a bigger hall next year to accommodate more exhibitors due to good response.”

MIFF 2014 will again be held at the downtown Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) and Matrade Exhibition and Convention Centre (MECC), covering a total of 80,000sqm.

Sales hit another high of US$854m this year, up US$24m from 2012.

The fair drew 6054 international buyers from 140 countries, with a good turnout of quality buyers from emerging regions and traditional markets of Australia, the US and Japan.