By Muhammad Asad Tahir Bhawana ISLAMABAD, May 18 (INP-WealthPK): The participation of Pakistan Furniture Council (PFC) in the upcoming exhibition in Kazakhstan will help the country to introduce its products in the international market and promote the industry, according to experts. The exhibition titled “Made in Pakistan Expo” will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan on May 19. It will continue till May 23. Mian Kashif Ashfaq, PFC Chief Executive Officer, told WealthPK that the expo would help Pakistan to get access to the international market to sell different furniture items.  “It will ultimately bring a lot of dollars to the country,” he said, and urged the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan to arrange more such events in different countries to promote Pakistan’s furniture industry. The furniture industry of Pakistan is unstructured and consists of small-scale enterprises. According to the annual report for 2020, the size of the industry is around $3 billion. The local demands are mostly met through small and medium enterprises. The organised segment of the industry targets only those customers, who can pay highly, within the country and abroad. Furniture is mostly exported by the organised sector of the industry. The small entrepreneurs cannot export their products owing to shortage of resources, leaving the potential of the industry unutilised and making it uncompetitive in the international market. However, some events arranged by PFC during the past few years gave a boost to the industry.  The export of furniture showed an increase of 111.6 percent in the current fiscal mainly due to the expos arranged by PFC in 2022 and 2020 besides the help of China to promote Pakistan’s furniture industry. “The designs of Pakistani furniture have great demand abroad. People around the world like our skills. Many foreign customers show interest in the made-in-Pakistan furniture because of our unique designs,” said Amanullah, a manufacturer of furniture in Chiniot, a city of Pakistan famous for the industry. The manufacturers said that the furniture industry could play a vital role in strengthening the national economy if some obstacles hindering its progress were removed. They said that Pakistani furniture could attract a lot of customers in the international market if proper steps were taken for the purpose. They urged the authorities concerned to take effective steps to control deforestation in Pakistan. They said that they faced a shortage of raw materials due to deforestation. Pakistan’s forest cover has decreased to 5 percent, which is alarming. The experts said that the workers and artisans associated with the furniture industry were mainly relying on traditional methods instead of utilising modern technology. They said that introduction of modern technology could give a robust boost to the furniture industry in Pakistan. They urged PFC to facilitate the small manufacturers in polishing their skills and modernising their techniques. They said that PFC should connect the small manufacturers with the international market besides imparting training to them to adopt new and modern methods.