Kebs won’t allow imports of poor quality furniture

The furniture business is changing by the day. Furniture companies that realise today’s consumers are savvier and more educated than ever before are thriving.

Furniture firms that go for quality brands that will not bring financial loss or pose a health risk to the consumer are bound to succeed in a cut-throat industry where competition is king.

Take for example this complaint from a furniture user who was disappointed to realize that what she had purchased from a so-called established company was substandard: “We bought a sofa. The legs of the sofa were made of third-grade plastic. It cracked within six months. We hardly sat on the sofa. When we called the furniture company, they told us to get it fixed by the local carpenter. How will the local carpenter have parts to fix their sofas?” the bewildered customer complained.

This is why the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) is keen to get rid of sub-standard furniture from the market.

In the past five years, Kenyans have spent Sh39.5 billion on imports, according to the Economic Survey 2021.

The surge in imports is due to easier foreign market access through e-commerce, a growing middle-income segment of the population that prioritise quality products.

The evolution being experienced in real estate due to urbanisation underpinned by the increasing number of middle-income class and an influx of foreign investors in real estate with innovative interior designers has acted as a catalyst for the ballooning imported furniture.

Although Africa accounts for only 2.2 percent of output and 2.8 percent of the global trade, the international furniture trade is more than $140 billion.

Preference for imported furniture to locally-made furniture by Kenyans is due to better workmanship, diversity in designs and the cost of purchase.

Locally produced furniture is made mainly of timber. Other materials used are composite, reducing the cost of production.

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a sudden surge in demand for hospital beds. Informal sectors positioned themselves to alleviate the shortage.

At the same time, when the Ministry of Education identified intervention measures to reduce congestion in schools, it launched a project to buy and distribute desks, creating unprecedented demand for furniture.

To ensure standardisation and maintenance of quality, the Kenya Bureau of Standards has developed numerous standards for furniture.

The Kebs has advised importers to get test reports from manufacturing companies to eliminate poor quality furniture imports.

Through regular review of risky substandard imports, the Kebs has upgraded furniture as one of the products that are high-risk in non-compliance to conformance standards.

The Kenya Industrial Transformation Programme identified furniture as a low-hanging fruit that could create a vibrant industry to boost the Big Four agenda in manufacturing.

To safeguard against unfair trade practices, the Kebs will intensify surveillance to ensure only quality furniture is imported.

Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) moved swiftly to ensure one young man’s innovated bed was certified.

During the certification process officers from KEBS provided guidance on improvement areas, which included enhancement of stability of the bed, making strong guard rails to prevent patients falling off and changing of base material from wood to steel.

As per the applicable standard, the hospital bed should not be constructed using wood as it is an easier recipient of germs and pathogens and therefore steel is recommended. Certification of the bed affirms SMEs role in the furniture industry.

The standards specify the general dimensions, Strength, Stability and Durability. In particular, KEBS has developed the hospital bed standards that include; KS 2462- 1: 2015 for ordinary bed, KS 2462-2 for paediatric (baby) cots, and KS 2462-3: 2017, Obstetric bed.

To ensure quality of beds a standard test method has been developed; KS ISO19833:2018, Furniture Beds Test methods for the determination of stability, strength and durability.

Other Standards for furniture include; KS ISO 24496:2017 Office furniture - Methods for determination of dimensions that is used by designers to develop measurements for ergonomics purposes; KS ISO 821:2005 Plastic monobloc chairs - Specification a standard for plastic chairs and; KS 2817:2018 Furniture-Wooden office table-Specification.

In addition to these standards, KEBS has also embraced the usage new material used in the manufacture of furniture by inclusion of bamboo as a construction material though the development of KS 2930:2021 Bamboo-culm furniture - General technical requirements.

The new standard offers alternative material for manufacture of furniture for both local manufactures and for imports.

While consumers retain their rights to purchase imported furniture due to their modern design features, they also suffer huge losses as some of this furniture are not durable and are weaker in terms of strength as compared to the locally manufactured furniture.

In 2013, the government made a declaration banning procurement of imported furniture for Government offices. Lack of proper framework for standardization and quality enforcement certification by SMEs has largely contributed to the failure of implementation of the policy.

In order to improve the quality of furniture MSEs should be provided with common user machines such as CNC routers, CNC plasma cutting machine and other furniture machines for enhanced production of quality furniture comparable to the imports but superior in strength and durability.