Getting A Leg Up: Bosnia Furniture Makers Given Boost By Pandemic

This stack of designer chairs in the Artisan furniture factory in Tesanj, in northern Bosnia, represents an unexpected economic boon that Bosnia-Herzegovina is enjoying, largely as a result of the recent coronavirus pandemic.

Workers construct chairs in the Standard furniture factory in Ilijas, near Sarajevo. 

The Bosnian furniture industry has enjoyed a surge in growth after the pandemic stifled supply chains from Asia into Europe.

Workers in the Artisan factory.

Bosnia's Artisan company currently employs 300 people, up from 200 just three years ago, according to a company spokesman.

The timber-cutting section of the Standard factory. 

Eldin Sabeta, the head of sales at the Standard furniture factory, one of Bosnia’s largest exporters, told AFP that "every month, a new customer knocks on our door,” adding that among the continued uncertainty of exporting from Asia, customers “need reliable suppliers.”

Workers constructing tables in the Standard factory. 

Bosnia ditched most of its COVID-19 restrictions in late 2021, unlike China, where rolling coronavirus lockdowns were still being imposed up until the end of 2022. Those restrictions reportedly impacted the authoritarian country’s manufacturing sector and export capabilities, leading to a sharp drop in manufacturing orders from China.

A file photo of a truck carrying timber along a forest road near Fojnica, in central Bosnia, in 2019.

Bosnia is one of Europe’s most timber-rich countries, with around 42 percent of its land area covered by forest. According to Ognjenka Lalovic, an official at the Bosnian Chamber of Foreign Trade, the lumber industry accounts for 10 to 15 percent of total exports from Bosnia.
 

A file photo of a worker fashioning wooden furniture at the Zanat company in Konjic in July 2018.

Lalovic told AFP that the country’s lumber industry owes its success to "quality raw materials, an experienced workforce, and tradition."

 

Workers sand chairs in the Artisan factory. 

Products from this factory are almost exclusively for the export market. Artisan-made seats similar to these sell for more than 1,300 euros each ($1,380) in Western European stores. The average salary in Bosnia is just 570 euros ($605) per month.
 

A worker slices timber in the Artisan factory. 

Despite the growth, Bosnian manufacturers have thus far captured only a small fraction of Europe's furniture market, estimated to be worth about 96 billion euros ($102 billion) in 2020.