After peaking at the end of 2010, the overall trend in imports from China has been downward during the last three years. However, because imports from other countries have fallen more quickly, China's share in overall EU wood furniture imports has risen from 49% to 54% since the start of 2010.

Imports from Vietnam have remained relatively stable since the start of 2010 and as a result share from this country has risen from 9% to 11%. The share of imports has fallen from Indonesia (8% to 6%) and Malaysia (5% to 4%) during the same period.

Chart 6 shows the trend between January 2010 and April 2014 in all imports of wood furniture (from both within and outside the EU) by EU Member State using 12 month rolling average data.

It shows that European markets have followed different paths over the last 4 years, although the general trend is downwards, at least since the start of 2013. Imports into Germany, which was less affected by the financial crises, were rising consistently until the end of 2012, but have since slowed significantly.

Imports into the UK and France, have fluctuated more widely over the short-term, to some extent driven by exchange rate movements. In the case of the UK the overall 4 year trend has been fairly stable. In contrast, imports into France have been declining quite sharply since the start of 2013. Imports into the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Italy have also been falling over the last two years.