ITALY – In 2016, around 25 million kitchens were manufactured in the world (3.6% more if compared to the previous year), with a stable unit price. Out of them, 1.9 million units were traded worldwide, corresponding to a global value of USD 5.6 billion.

According to CSIL forecast, this value is expected to reach USD 6.7 billion by 2021. Germany is by far the leading exporting country, as in 2016 the value of its export amounted to USD 2.1 billion.

On the other hand, the United States is both the largest market and the biggest importer, as in 2016 the U.S. imported kitchens for a value of almost USD 1.6 billion. Still, the kitchen furniture sector is not very open to foreign markets. This sector is less subjected to import penetration (defined as the ratio between import and consumption valued in current USD) than other furniture business. For the 60 countries as a whole, this ratio has been around 10% for the last three years.

This is due to the installation work often required and complementary to the kitchen purchase, and also because of the different standards in size and other technical issues that can vary from country to country.