Leaders seeking balance between prices and transport difficulties

A continuous balancing act in an increasingly unstable context. The wood-furnishing industry - the production heartland that stretches from the Treviso area to the Pordenone area - is an example of resilience "in a phase of continuous and great uncertainty that slows down investment," explains Mirko Longo, president of the Confindustria Veneto Est commodities group.

With its 272 companies, the Legno Arredamento Group represents the second largest manufacturing group in the region, which in turn is the second largest in Italy. An important furniture district, in which the region's large corporations are concentrated, producing 60% of the supply chain's turnover and employing 56% of the workforce in the furniture sector alone, supported by a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises that have sprung up and developed around them. The numbers see the province of Treviso confirmed as the leader in Italy in furniture exports, the first province for exported value in the wood-furniture sector (in the year 2025, 1.9 billion Euro). With about 1,590 companies and over 20,000 employees, the Treviso area is a pillar of made in Italy. The Pordenone district has scored 1.5 billion in exports. The Udine area scored almost 600 million, while foreign sales in the Bassano area totalled 500 million.

The Treviso Belluno Chamber of Commerce based on data from Unioncamere Veneto notes that for the Treviso sector, 2025 closed in positive territory for production (+2.6 per cent), turnover (+2.9 per cent), domestic orders (+3.7 per cent) and foreign orders (+0.4 per cent), the latter almost stable.

"International tensions have repercussions on the target clientele, which is typically high spenders, in distant markets, including the Arab Emirates, directly affected during the Iranian crisis. China itself is not what it used to be. Energy prices and transport difficulties are not without consequences,' Longo summarises. But the traditional markets are sending positive signals: Germany, the second partner for provincial exports in the wood-furnishing sector, will be worth 291 million in 2025 (+3.9%), while the Netherlands and Canada, both worth 38 million in exports in 2025, will grow by +14.9% and +27.5% respectively. Portugal, Hungary, Morocco and Turkey are also doing well.