Oct 15, 2008. /Lesprom.com/. China’s furniture imports have jumped significantly since 2000, GlobalWood reported. Experts suggest that the value of China’s furniture imports will be $1.5 billion by 2010. Prices for China’s imported furniture are three times higher than for domestic furniture. The value of imported furniture is 5% of the total value of China’s furniture market. China’s imported furniture includes bedroom, kitchen and office furniture, redwood furniture and mattresses mainly from Italy (24.5%), Germany (23.6%) and the US (20%). The value of imported furniture to China from these three countries consists of 70% of total furniture imports. In 2005, China cut import tariffs on furniture to zero to stimulate the growth of furniture imports. Currently, furniture products from 30 countries have entered China’s market through franchises and domestic distributors. For example, the US Kinwai Furniture Group, one of the US’s five major furniture enterprises, established a 400,000 hectare furniture production base in Jiangmen City (Guangdong Province) in 1993. Since then, it has opened nearly 700 franchised stores, with total annual sales of RMB1 billion yuan. Experts suggest that many foreign furniture manufacturers will enter China’s market within the next few years, especially after phase III of the Shanghai International Furniture Village has been completed in 2009.