Poland is the second-largest producer of furniture, with only China producing more, according to a recent report by Abacorp on the furniture industry. Every year Polish furniture factories produce more than 31 million couches, sofas, chairs, mattresses as well as car and airplane seats. In terms of sales, Poland is in fourth place, behind the US, Italy and China.

The furniture industry in Poland provides 62,000 jobs, and in 2011, Polish furniture sales stood at over zł.12 billion. The sector is growing five times faster than in the rest of the EU.

Seventy-five percent of the furniture produced in Poland is sold abroad – half of that goes to Germany, 20 percent to France, 8 percent to the Netherlands and 6 percent to Sweden, the report said.

Poland’s specialty is transformable bedroom furniture like futons and foldable chairs. According to Abacorp, over half of such furniture sold in Europe comes from Poland. Poland is also a leader in the production of upholstered furniture for cars and airplanes.

What gives Polish furniture its edge? “Price-to-quality ratio above all,” Marcin Bandura, CEO of SIC, an upholstery manufacturer in Łódź, was quoted by daily Gazeta Wyborcza as saying.

According to Mr Bandura, the quality of Polish furniture is just as high as that made in the West, but it is much cheaper. The average price of a piece of furniture produced in Western Europe is E147, compared to E90 in Poland, the newspaper wrote.