World Forest Sector during the Pandemic: Poland

The coronavirus pandemic may cause the collapse of Polish furniture manufacturers, which face many production curtailments. The five main Polish furniture manufacturers estimate that the economic risk would be equivalent to two points of GDP, and asks that the government aid announced for SMEs and MSMEs not to exclude large companies.

90% of Polish furniture production is for export, mainly to Europe, polish media reports. And since all European retail stores have been closed, the demand for furniture has dropped to almost zero.

Without support, companies will have to proceed in the coming weeks to collective redundancies. The CEOs of big companies call the Polish government to abandon the differentiation of support for companies according to their size. They also want the amount of the allowance paid to short-time employees to be at least 80% of the minimum wage or 40% of average earnings, regardless of the position held.