Sales of imported parquet are falling too

On 25th March the European Federation of Parquet Importers (EFPI) published its statistics concerning the sales of wooden flooring in Europe. The data show a fall of 22.27% in overall sales of imported parquet between 2008 and 2009, which translates into a drop in volume from 9,099,723 m2 to 7,072,838 m2.
While imports of solid parquet rose by 1.11% (representing just 8% of the import market), imports of laminate parquet in 2009 fell by 23.86% compared to the previous year.
“These figures reflect the current economic crisis affecting the building industry throughout Europe,” said the EFPI President Jürgen Früchtenicht (photo). “2009 proved to be a very difficult year for us, characterised by poor demand and a corresponding drop in sales. Nevertheless, the import sector continues to play a key role in the European wooden flooring market. We view 2010 with cautious optimism: we’ve already seen more orders than last year, but it’s still too early to make any serious predictions”.