Import Share and Export Exposure Methodology

Import share, export exposure, source inputs, classification alignment, and interpretation limits.

Why this matters

Import value and export value describe trade scale. Import share and export exposure put those flows in context by comparing them with the size of the domestic market or production base. This helps separate a larger trade flow from a deeper change in market structure.

Method typeAnnual trade-to-market and trade-to-production ratio calculation

Import share formulaImports divided by apparent consumption

Export exposure formulaExports divided by furniture production turnover

Primary data sourcesFurniture imports, furniture exports, apparent consumption, and furniture production turnover source tables

Main limitationsNominal values, re-exports, timing differences, source revisions, and small classification-boundary differences

Calculation

Import share is calculated as annual furniture imports divided by annual apparent furniture consumption. Apparent consumption is production plus imports minus exports, so the indicator estimates the imported share of furniture available to the domestic market.

Export exposure, also labelled export share on some indicator pages, is calculated as annual furniture exports divided by annual furniture production turnover. It shows how strongly a production base is linked to foreign demand.

Source data

The trade components use furniture import and export datasets built from customs trade statistics, usually HS or CN furniture product codes. The production component uses furniture manufacturing turnover datasets, usually aligned with industrial activity classifications such as NACE C31 Manufacture of furniture.

Furnilytics uses complete annual observations where possible. Monthly trade and production tables are aggregated to calendar years before ratio calculations, and country-years are included only when the required components are available.

Classification alignment

Production and trade sources do not always use identical statistical boundaries. Production is normally industry-based, while trade is product-code-based. Broad furniture trade code groups can include a small number of furniture-related products that sit closer to transport or medical-equipment supply chains than to standard furniture manufacturing. This means ratio indicators should be read as carefully aligned market proxies rather than exact identity-accounting measures.

Interpretation and limitations

Import share is not a retail market share and does not show which retailers or brands supply the market. Export exposure is not a company export ratio and does not measure profitability, margin, or production volume. Both indicators use nominal values, so changes can reflect prices, exchange rates, product mix, re-exports, and source revisions as well as physical market movement.

Related methodology notes

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