GERMANY – “Brexit is becoming an increasing problem for the German furniture industry,” says Jan Kurth, managing director of the Association of the German Furniture Industry (VDM) when the United Kingdom left the EU on January 31st.

“Our furniture exports to the UK have been falling steadily since 2016 – long before today’s departure date. By the end of 2019, we had to cope with a decline of 11 percent to 690 million euros, ”said Kurth. This is all the more serious because exports to the EU rose by 9 percent overall in the same period.

“These painful declines in our fifth most important market really hurt domestic industry and we fear that after the final exit, consumer sentiment on the island will continue to decline and that this will hit our medium-sized industry particularly hard with durable products,” said Kurth.