This year more than 57,500 wood industry professionals from 143 countries flocked to Interzum (Koln, Germany) to view trends and innovations for the manufacture of furniture, which are then picked up by producers during the next two years, since Interzum takes place every two years. This time within the “Nature and materials” sector three trends emerged:

Trend 1: Naturalness, coupled with real woods or a solid-wood finish
Trend 2: Personality and Authenticity
Trend 3: From high-gloss to matt

Swiss Import Promotion Program SIPPO has been exhibiting at Interzum with its collective stand for the third time. Visitors were able to discover new suppliers of high quality light-wood boards, oak furniture panels, fine veneer, solid beech boards, seats curved in pressed veneer, decorative wall panels in teak or coconut wood – from in total 10 companies from Ukraine, Indonesia, Serbia and Bosnia. Ukrainian company K’Len has been exhibiting at Interzum for the third time, this time the company presented its furniture novelties. Tanforan and Euroshpon-Smyha for the second time demonstrated the quality of Ukrainian veneer and natural edge-banding tape.

The day before the trade fair started, SIPPO organized a training for participants to master the nuances of international sales. During preparation to Interzum and other fairs, FORZA NGO also provided training and coaching for Ukrainian companies. Topics included how to make the best of the trade fair, what to do before, during and after the fair to make the contracts out of contacts.

From te very first day and until the last minutes of the fair the SIPPO stand was humming with negotiations with existing and potential clients. During the next months we are looking forward to good contracts!