Delegates at the opening ceremony of the Furniture Sourcing Day, which is part of the Vietnam Furniture Matching Week, in Thủ Đức City on April 14. — VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Furniture Sourcing Day opened in Thủ Đức City on Wednesday.

The event at the White Palace Event and Exhibition Centre has attracted more than 400 manufacturers and exporters and local and foreign sourcing agencies, who hope to exchange information and explore online and offline business opportunities.

It seeks to enable Vietnamese manufacturers to showcase their products and production capacities to foreign buyers via HOPE platform (https://hopefairs.com), the online exhibition platform that the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City (HAWA) launched last year to connect furniture suppliers with global buyers at a time when many trade fairs and exhibitions were postponed or cancelled due to COVID-19, and directly to sourcing partners.

There will be business matching and exhibition activities and two seminars on building a corporate management system in line with the market’s sourcing demand and on export opportunities for furniture and handicraft products through Amazon.

The event is part of the Vietnam Furniture Matching Week being held from April 12 to 19 to connect Vietnamese manufacturers with thousands of international buyers through online and offline activities like online exhibitions, B2B matching, factory visits and webinars with in-depth analysis of key markets such as the US, the UK, South Korea, Germany, and Canada.

More than 100 Vietnamese producers have showcased their latest products, virtual showrooms and factories on HOPE, HAWA chairman Nguyễn Quốc Khanh said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hà Công Tuấn, hailed the achievements of the woodworking industry, saying that, despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, their exports rose by 16.4 per cent last year to US$13.17 billion.

Khanh said “Việt Nam surpassed Poland, Germany and Italy in wood product exports and was only behind China. This shows that local firms have improved their product designs and transformed to cope with new developments in the market.”

Furniture design competition

Also on April 14 HAWA announced the winners of the Hoa Mai Furniture Design Competition. Nguyễn Đức Huynh, a designer at Scancom Company won the first prize for a table and chair set inspired by architectural style at Hùng King Temple and a S21 rocking chair inspired by the image of manual carts.

Nguyễn Đức Huynh, a designer at Scancom Company, receives the first prize in the 19th Hoa Mai furniture design competition from Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hà Công Tuấn (R) and Nguyễn Quốc Khanh, HAWA’s chairman. — VNS Photo

Trần Thuận Phát, another designer, won the second prize, and Vũ Phan Hoài Nhi, a student of Văn Lang University, won the third prize. There were also five consolation prizes.

The 19th annual competition attracted 350 entries from across the country.

Referring to the quality of the entries, Khanh, who was head of the jury, said: “The works this time feature high commercial viability. With just some minor adjustments, they can be sold in the local market, even exported.”

Outstanding works at the competition are on display on https://hopefairs.com. — VNS