Furniture, Paper and Forestry Products' Exporter Association is divided in four sub-sectors, which are: Furniture, Wood Products, Paper, Paperboard and Packing, The exportation of these sub sectors, in terms of adding value as the best foreign currency inflow into our country, owns an important place in the overall exports of Turkey. Our Management Board is composed of representatives of the four sub-sectors. Apart from it, as the Exporters Association owns the largest hinterland in Turkey, representatives of all the provinces realizing exports take place in our Management Board. As members of our Union, are represented both on sectorial and regional ground, all the problems encountered can be solved in a rapid and effective way.

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Due to the political problems met by the countries surrounding Turkey, a slight increase of 4 per cent was seen in 2014 compared with the previous year and the year was closed with exports for a value of 158 billion dollars. In the same way, the exports of furniture, paper and forestry products sector were affected by the mess around and only a slight increase of 1,4 per cent was seen in 2014 compared with the previous year and the year was closed with exports for a value of 4,5 million dollars. Regarding the sector of Mediterranean furniture, paper and forestry products, exports were much more affected by the situation and a decrease of 2 per cent was reported in the exports with an export value reaching 537 million and 723 thousand dollars.

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In order to support our exporters working in difficult conditions, we are working harder than even before in 2015. In order to solve the problems of the sector, our Management Board members, together with the Turkish Exporters Assembly, the Forestry General Directorate, Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, the General Directorate for agricultural quarantine, the General Directorate for Nature Protection and National Parks, is taking steps to find solutions to the problems met by the sector.

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Apart from it, all the associations, namely Istanbul Wood and Forestry Products Exporters' Association, (IIB), Aegean Wood and Forestry Products Exporters' Association (EIB), Central Anatolian Wood and Forestry Products Exporters' Association (OAIB), Istanbul Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters' Association (IKMIB), Istanbul Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters ‘Association (IDDMIB), Mediterranean Chemicals and Chemical Products Exporters' Association (AKMIB) and Mediterranean Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals Exporters ‘Association (IDDMIB) put their strengths together to bring new technologies and methods in production processing of the furniture sector, in cooperation with the university for industry, in order to increase the competitiveness of the sector in foreign markets by organization the second R&D Project Market event.

As it is well-known, furniture sector in our country is composed by many subsectors and is one of the leader sectors in Turkey's exports. Through Furniture R&D Project Market event, we aim to put together university students, academicians and researchers with exporters and industrials in common projects. The objective of first priority is that the event offers an insight into the future of our sector.