Last week, on February 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine held a briefing on the topic: “Ukraine must protect and develop industry and create furniture clusters “, the participants of which voiced not only the achievements of domestic furniture and woodworking industries but also the main directions of their development. but also a whole range of problems that prevent them from moving forward productively – for example, to the level reached in their country by the furniture of neighbouring Poland. The speakers of the briefing appealed to the people’s deputies to get acquainted with the state importance of their messages, to become both their like-minded people and assistants at the state level. overcoming these obstacles and achieving the set strategic goals, one of which is the clustering of the furniture industry.

The People’s Deputy from Rivne Region Oleksandr Kovalchuk, who acted as the moderator of the briefing, stressed the importance of clustering, the unification process of which has already begun in the woodworking and furniture industries and geographically in particular in Rivne Region. Industry clusters – this is a proven foreign practice instrument driver, which is able to convert raw appendage of Ukraine in the European industrial powerful state, in which the furniture industry can take a leading strategic position.

Oksana Donska, coordinator of the clustering project from the Ukrainian Association of Furniture Manufacturers, broadened her vision of the challenges facing the furniture and woodworking industries and the country as a whole. With regard to clustering, she stressed that if we did not lag behind the clustering processes in the industry on the basis of industrial parks, if earlier with the effective support of the state, as in Poland, used this tool of industrial breakthrough, the 13.5 percent annual export growth Ukrainian furniture, which our furniture industry has demonstrated over the past five years, has been many times larger. So now that these unification processes in domestic-related industries have begun, the state should not be left out. To prevent this from happening, this briefing was organized. If we have effective state support, we will have a real chance to catch up with our Polish colleagues, because the domestic furniture industry has the potential to do so.

The company «Kronospan Ukraine», which is a powerful manufacturer of plate materials, including for the furniture industry, has become the centre of the creation of three of the four industry clusters, foundations have already been laid, so well reasoned became involved in briefing its CEO Natalia Pokinskoy. Reiterating the importance of sectoral clustering, she identified the needs of the industry that are important for future clusters to be effective. In particular, she appealed to parliamentarians to normalize the domestic timber market, to pass laws that would guarantee that most of the Ukrainian timber will be processed with the maximum added value in Ukraine.

We will hope that the supporters and organizers of the first Ukrainian furniture clusters were heard within the walls of the parliament and that this briefing will be another step towards effective cooperation with legislators.