Manufacturers and repairers of furniture and furnishing accessories but also upholsterers, carpenters, makers of objects and materials in wood and cork who create and offer products and services for the home, public administration and communities in their laboratories.
On the island there are 856 companies in the «wood and furniture» sector, of which 720 artisans (83.9%), which give work and opportunities to 2,156 employees, of which 1,563 artisans (61.3%). 748 realities belong to the Wood sector (624 artisans) while 108 are related to Furniture (96 artisans).

All have to deal with the lack of raw materials and high energy costs, a consequence of international tensions. This is what emerges from the analysis on "Wood furniture and export companies" prepared by the Study Office of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna, based on ISTAT sources.

«The situation is paradoxical - Confartigianato Sardinia denounces - because for companies there is work, orders arrive but you navigate on sight because the system, still damaged by the Covid crisis, is now colliding with the shortage of materials that have now become difficult to be found, expensive and without ships and containers available to get them to the factories. For this reason, companies in the sector are looking for alternative products suitable for being used in production, also paying higher prices than before, but this need collides with the possibility of finding raw materials because all stocks are running out. . A very complicated situation especially for manufacturers of panels (used for the construction of furniture), wooden packaging, wooden roofs, doors, parquet, windows and other parts of the furniture that use wood and fear a "domino effect" which would have disruptive effects.
«Our companies have very large order backlogs but are unable to make deliveries due to the scarcity of wood – the conclusion – and also for other materials there is a crisis: iron, aluminium, plastics. It's a whole chain that is jamming. In the coming months, if things go on like this, our companies will have difficulty delivering the furniture within the average times and we risk overtaking foreign competitors». But the sector "isn't about to be replaced by low-cost products".

Sardinian exports in the sector, from the pandemic to today, have already significantly changed their weight going to 1,267,236 euros in 2019 reaching 850 thousand euros in 2021 . On the contrary, substantial growth was recorded in 2020 with 1,525,385 euros of sales abroad.
At the provincial level, the largest number of enterprises is found in Northern Sardinia (Sassari-Gallura) : as many as 355 businesses (of which 180 artisans) employing 996 people. Followed by Southern Sardinia with 151 companies (1331 artisans) and 383 employees, the Cagliari area with 134 activities, of which 102 artisan companies, for an employment of 380 employees, Nuoro with 124 companies (16 artisans) and Oristano with 92 companies (89 craftswomen). Small and medium-sized island realities in the sector strong in a long family tradition in producing , often being businesses that have been handed down for generations.
(Unioneonline/D)

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