CRI听力:Foreign Brand Furniture

After the scandal at The Da Vinci Furniture Company, many high fashion furniture brands are faced a decrease in sales. Most customers who planned on buying foreign brands are now going to wait and see.

Ms. Lu likes the style of French furniture, but she is now hesitant to make the purchase.

"After the fakes scandal, we customers will definitely hesitate and have questions."

The foreign brands which used to be the favorite of many Chinese customers are now faced with an integrity crisis. Zhou Yufeng is the general manager of Roche Bobois Furniture Company's Chinese branch. He says their sales in Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities have slumped in the past two weeks. Many customers who have already signed the purchasing contract have suspended the payment, while some who has placed an order and have cancelled it. It is the first time the French furniture maker have come face-to-face with this situation since it entered Chinese market seven years ago.

"I can tell you a very shocking fact. Our sales of the first half of this month reduced by more than 80% compared to previous six years. We've never had any crisis as serious as this one."

Facing the crisis, dealers are trying to win back the trust of customers. Da Vinci cheated customers to buy so called made abroad products by shipping Chinese products around to get an import certification. Now furniture dealers selling foreign brands have started to ask manufacturers to send production place certification with their products. Because it costs money to apply for the certification, dealers usually didn't ask for it in the past.

This furniture dealer is telling customers how to tell a good quality product from a fake one by looking at the workmanship and checking the material used.

Customers are learning to sharpen their eyes when shopping, but the government should shoulder the responsibility to supervise the businesses.

The export volume of the domestic furniture is 33 billion US dollars, accounting for 34% of global furniture trading amount. According to the Secretary-General of Shanghai Furniture Association Xu Guanrong, the domestic furniture making has already met the international standards, but the home-made furniture lacks original designs and brand value. High income customers would spend hundreds of thousands of Yuan to buy a foreign chair. The furniture import value in 2010 is 1.2 billion yuan.

For CRI, I'm Zhao Kun.