With its overseas provinces, strong economic structure, and position among EU countries, France is one of the most important economies of the world. As one of the leading importing countries in both the furniture and woodworking machinery sector, France has signed 9.4 billion dollars of furniture imports and 310 million dollars of woodworking machinery imports at the end of 2022.
The part of France within the borders of Europe, called Metropolitan France, is located in the western part of the continent. However, France also has many provinces and special regions in a wide geography spanning North America, the Caribbean, South America, the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica. Of these, those directly belonging to France, as overseas provinces; the partner countries that are independent within themselves and have an agreement with France on defense are called collectivités d’outre-mer for short COM.
Continental France, which has been one of the leading countries in the field of international relations throughout the world since the second half of the 17th century, is located in the lands stretching from the Mediterranean in the south to the English Channel and the North Sea in the north, from the Rhine in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. France’s European neighbors are Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Monaco and Andorra. In addition, the island of Corsica, which is only 12 kilometers away from the Italian island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, belongs to France. It has borders with Brazil and Suriname through French Guiana and the Netherlands Antilles via Saint Martin Island in the overseas provinces it owns. France is also connected to the United Kingdom by the Channel Tunnel, which passes under the sea surface in the English Channel.
France, which is ideally located for transportation to important industrial and commercial points in other countries of the European Union, covers the Po plain, the industrial center of Italy in the south, the industrial centers of England in the northwest, from the Catalan region of Spain in the south to the middle of Italy in the southeast. It is located at the junction connecting the Mediterranean region stretching out.
It has an advanced economy
France, which ranks sixth in the world ranking with its nominal gross domestic product, is also in the class of developed countries with an advanced economy with its purchasing power parity. Being one of the founding members of the European Union, France is the country with the largest area among the member states of the union. One of the founding members of the United Nations, France is also a participant in the Francophone, G8 Summits, Latin Union and NATO. Being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the country is also an important nuclear power with 360 effective warheads and 59 nuclear power plants.
LOW CARBON EMISSIONS DUE TO NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
Despite being one of the most industrialized countries in the world, France lags behind countries like Canada or Australia in terms of carbon dioxide emissions. The reason for this is nuclear power plants, which make up 75 percent of electricity production.
France is a country that attracts significant foreign direct investment due to its educated workforce, quality infrastructure and large market. However, compared to other developed countries, due to its low level of R&D investments, high tax burden and heavy bureaucracy, it cannot capture its real potential in attracting foreign capital, and even French firms go abroad to benefit from the low taxes and cheap labor force of Eastern Europe, Far East, Middle East and North Africa. On the other hand, France ranks first among the countries where foreign capital comes mostly for industrial investment. It ranks 4th in the world in terms of worker productivity.
INDUSTRY ACCOUNTS FOR A QUARTER OF THE COUNTRY’S INCOME AND MORE THAN 80 PERCENT OF TRADE EARNINGS
France, which ranks first in the European Economic Community with its abundance and diversity of agricultural products and fourth in the world in terms of dairy products, is also a very strong country in terms of industry. The industry accounts for a quarter of the country’s income and more than 80 percent of its trade earnings. 3.3 percent of the country works in agriculture, 26.1 percent in industry, 70.6 percent in the service sector. The country’s industry is based on machinery, chemical products, automobiles, metallurgy, aircraft, electronics, textiles, food products and tourism.
IMPORT PARTNERS; GERMANY, BELGIUM, ITALY, SPAIN, NETHERLANDS, UK AND USA
The most important export products of France, which is one of the rule-making countries of the European Union, are machinery and transportation vehicles, aircraft, plastic products, chemicals, pharmaceutical products, iron-steel and soft drinks. Machinery and its parts, vehicles, crude oil, aircraft, plastic products and chemical products are among the product groups that the country imports the most. Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the USA are the country’s most important export partners. France’s import partners are Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
IT IS THE COUNTRY WITH THE FOURTH HIGHEST FOREST RATE IN EUROPE
With 31 percent of its surface area being forests, France is the country with the fourth highest forest rate in Europe. France, which has more than 140 tree species on its soil, is very rich in forest diversity. France, which is among the most important target markets of the Turkish woodworking machinery industry, is also among the important players of the global furniture industry.
France, the third largest market in Europe after Germany and Italy, accounts for two-thirds of all European furniture consumption, together with the UK.
4th PLACE IN FURNITURE IMPORTS
According to World Furniture Outlook data prepared by Center of Industrial Studies (CSIL) for EUMABOIS; At the end of 2022, France ranked 12th with 8 billion dollars of furniture production, 16th with 2.4 billion dollars of exports, 4th with 9.4 billion dollars of imports, and approximately 15 billion dollars in domestic sales among the countries subject to the report at the end of 2022. It was ranked 6th. Having signed a furniture production of 8.4 billion dollars at the end of 2021, France produced furniture of 7 billion dollars in 2020, 7.6 billion dollars in 2019, and 8 billion dollars in 2018.
MADE THE MOST FURNITURE EXPORTS TO GERMANY
Looking at the export data in the report, it was seen that the total furniture exports of France, which made an export of 2.4 billion dollars in 2022, was 2.5 billion dollars at the end of 2021. The country’s exports in 2020 amounted to 2.1 billion dollars. France realized the highest furniture export to its neighbor Germany with a rate of 15.6 percent in 2022. Germany was respectively followed by Switzerland with 9.6 percent, Spain with 9.2 percent, the United Kingdom with 9 percent, Belgium with 8.5 percent, Italy with 6.6 percent, the United States with 6.2 percent, Portugal with 4,6 percent,Poland with 3 percent and China with 2.9 percent.
MOST OF THE FURNITURE IMPORTS COME FROM CHINA
The import rate of France, which is one of the important players in the sector especially in furniture imports, was 9.4 billion dollars in 2022. While the country’s imports were 9.7 billion dollars in 2021, it made 7.4 billion dollars in 2020. The country from which France imported the most furniture in 2022 was China with a rate of 21.4 percent. The second most important import market was Italy with 15.8 percent. Italy was followed respectively by Germany with 14.1 percent, Poland with 7.5 percent, Spain with 6.6 percent, Belgium with 5.7 percent, Portugal with 4.2 percent, Romania with 3.1 percent, the Netherlands with 3 percent and Vietnam with 2 percent. Turkey could not be among the top 10 countries from which Italy imports furniture.
A CONTRACTION IS EXPECTED IN DOMESTIC SALES
According to the CSIL Report; by the end of 2022, 14.9 billion dollars of domestic furniture sales, 15.6 billion dollars in 2021 and 12.3 billion dollars at the end of 2020, are realized in France, and a 3 percent contraction in domestic furniture sales by the end of 2023 will be achieved. It is expected to grow by 2% at the end. When furniture production segments are examined; at the end of 2022, it was seen that France produced the most furniture, which is in the group of others, with a share of 64 percent. In addition, 22% of the total furniture production consisted of kitchen furniture, 7% of office furniture and 7% of armchairs, sofas and chairs.
WOODWORKING MACHINERY IMPORTS WORTH 310 MILLION DOLLARS IN TOTAL
France, which is among the top 10 target markets of the Turkish woodworking machinery industry, imported a total of 310 million dollars of woodworking machinery at the end of 2022. France’s imports in 2021 amounted to 321 million dollars, while its imports in 2020 were 263 million dollars. When the import data according to product groups are examined; It was seen that the country imported the most saw machines with approximately 101 million dollars in 2022. Machines in the others group took the second place with approximately 52 million dollars. The ranking of the machines imported by France from all over the world at the end of 2022 was as follows; machines that perform various machine operations without changing tools among these operations, machining centres, splitting, slitting or peeling machines, hole punching or tenoning machines, planing, milling or die-cutting machines, grinding, sanding or polishing machines, bending or joining machines.
TURKEY’S WWM EXPORTS WERE LIMITED TO 2 MILLION DOLLARS
Turkey’s woodworking machinery exports to France during 2022 were limited to 2 million dollars. Turkey’s exports in 2021 were 1.4 million dollars, while exports in 2020 were 2.4 million dollars. Turkey sold the highest sawing machines to France in 2022 with 810 thousand dollars. This was followed by the machines in the others group with 532 million dollars, and the machines that perform various machine operations without changing tools among these processes with 315 thousand dollars. It has been noted that Turkey has not been able to export to France at all in the field of splitting, slitting or peeling machines during the past year.