When families in China sit down to meals in the near future, there's a good chance they will be eating at tables made from wood grown in West Virginia.

“The Chinese no longer have any wood, really, of their own to use for furniture production,” said Caitlin Ashley, international trade representative for the Export Promotion Program at the W.Va. Development Office.

The Development Office coordinated a visit in late August from a delegation of Chinese businessmen from the Shanxi province looking to buy logs from West Virginia companies.

“Their primary purpose in coming here was to source logs for furniture and flooring,” she said, adding that the Chinese taste in furniture right now is the pattern and grain found in red oak, white oak and white ash.

“China is our No. 1 market for hardwood exports,” Ashley said. “It's a growing market for hardwood producers.”

Visiting the Mountain State were Kong Xiangfu, Sun Ruizheng and Xuan Jian, managers of the Shanxi Zekun Trading Co., and Wang Siyin, general manager of the Shanxi Energy Group Mining Industry Investment and Management Co.

They met with six companies in Preston, Randolph, Upshur, Nicholas and Wood counties. The companies included Rolling Ridge Woods in Parkersburg, Northwest Hardwoods in Hacker Valley along with Allegheny Wood Products sawmill and Appalachian Wood Products pellet mill in Kingwood.

“The Chinese delegation had not seen wood pellets before, and were interested in their use and cost to provide heat,” said Preston County Economic Development Authority Executive Director Robbie Baylor. “They were also very interested in the production process at the AWP sawmill. They were familiar with sawmills, but had not seen a mill with an operation as large the Kingwood mill.”

Ashley said it could be months before the development office learns if the companies sold any logs to the wood buyers, but the future looks promising. When Ashley and Robbie Morris, president of the West Virginia Hardwood Alliance Zone, attended the Furniture Manufacturing and Supply China expo in Shanghai, one of the businessmen met with them to continue the discussion and build a relationship with West Virginia.

During their West Virginia visit, the businessmen also talked about investing in the Mountain State.

Ashley said the group may be interested in investing in established companies in West Virginia, but that's a future goal. The PCEDA, however, is acting now.

“In the next few weeks, the PCEDA will be contacting local companies who fit the profile for which the Chinese delegation is looking,” Baylor wrote in a newsletter. “Companies interested in partnering will be asked to provide financial statements, business and marketing plans and other business information.”