COLOMBIA - Colombian exports of wooden furniture maintained its remarkable growth path in the first half (6M) of 2018, totaling USD 15.2 million, representing a strong increase of 31.3% compared to the same period of 2017 (USD 11.6 million).

This performance more than doubled the growth of 14.7% of the total of the external sales of the country during the first semester of 2018.

Again the main export company in 6M-2018 was RTA Muebles (former RTA Design) with USD 4.4 million, a remarkable increase of 70.9% in its exports compared to 6M-2017. With this figure RTA Muebles was responsible for 28.9% of the total wooden furniture exported in the period (6M-2017: 22.4%).

In second place was Muebles Jamar, which also obtained an important growth of its exports in 6M-2018 (77.4%) with USD 1.9 million, equivalent to 12.6% of the total Colombian exports of wooden furniture.

Panama was the main destination for Colombian exports of wooden furniture in 6M-2018, registering USD 4.4 million. Although with a drop of 7.3%, the United States remained the second most important external market in the period, with shipments of USD 2.9 million (6M-2017: USD 3.1 million).

The two main external markets represented 48% of the total wooden furniture exports in 6M-2018, compared to the 47.8% that these two destinations represented in the same period of 2017.