Poland sells more furniture to the world than almost any other country on earth, and yet the same importers who load Polish sofas onto trucks bound for Germany are now buying Indonesian teak root by the container. The reason is arithmetic, not taste. Poland exported about US$18.8 billion of furniture in 2025, the third-highest total in the world, with Germany alone taking roughly 34% of it (Polish furniture-industry export data, 2025). What that export machine cannot make is a one-of-a-kind organic piece — a teak root dining table, a root console with a glass top, a sculptural root base — because a factory line is built to repeat, not to improvise.
This article is written for the importer, wholesaler or fit-out contractor working out of Poznań, Warsaw or Gdańsk. It covers what Poland is specifying in 2026, what a container really costs once it clears Polish customs, and which documents stop a load sitting on the quay — including the angle most suppliers miss: Poland is a re-export base for the whole region, not just a domestic market.
What Poland is buying in 2026
Start with the demand, because it is unusually well documented. Poland accommodated a record 58.9 million tourists in 2025, up 11.6% year on year, with foreign arrivals reaching 15.2 million, up 13.1%. That was the second-fastest growth in overnight stays in the EU, behind only Malta, and tourism revenue reached about PLN 94 billion (roughly €21 billion) (Statistics Poland / GUS, February 2026). A country that fills that many rooms also has to furnish and refurbish them.
The supply side is expanding to meet it. The 2026 Horwath HTL Poland Hotel & Chains Report counts 532 chain hotels with 74,138 rooms inside a market of 2,629 properties, and chain penetration has reached 46% by rooms. The active development pipeline is concentrated in two places: the Tri-City (Gdańsk–Gdynia–Sopot), with 12 projects and roughly 1,945 rooms — an estimated 18% increase in room supply — and Warsaw, with 9 projects and about 1,860 rooms, around 10% growth. Warsaw’s hotels ran at near-decade-high occupancy of around 80% in 2025 and posted a nominal RevPAR record (HVS Warsaw Market Pulse, September 2026).
Those two signals point at the same buyer. A hotel refurbishing at 80% occupancy is not adding a wing; it is replacing what wears out — lobby furniture, restaurant and café seating, lounge tables, reception consoles. That is where a teak root console at the entrance, a root coffee table with a glass top in the lounge, or a run of root stools and benches in a restaurant make commercial sense. Larger projects also specify a standing root sculpture as a lobby centrepiece — a piece that photographs well and never repeats between two properties.
The re-export logic that changes how you quote
Here is the part that rarely makes it into a country guide. Poland is not only a destination; it is a distribution base. Polish wholesalers and trading houses buy stock and move it onward into Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, the Baltics and — increasingly — Ukraine. Furniture imports into Poland grew 17.3% between 2023 and 2024, on an 18% compound annual rate across 2020–2024 (6Wresearch, Poland furniture market). A supplier who quotes cleanly, packs for onward freight and holds a realistic lead time stops being a one-off vendor and becomes a re-export partner.
The single best place to meet that buyer pool is MEBLE POLSKA in Poznań (24–26 February 2026), the world’s largest presentation of the Polish furniture industry: ten pavilions across more than 60,000 sq m, professional buyers from 73 countries, and international visitors making up nearly two-thirds of attendees (meblepolska.pl, 2026). An Indonesian teak root supplier that shows there is talking directly to the people who decide what fills warehouses and shop floors across Central Europe.
Reading the landed cost into Gdańsk
Most first-time importers fixate on duty and are surprised to find it is not the problem. Under the EU Common External Tariff the main finished wooden-furniture line, HS 9403.60, sits at around 0% MFN duty (EU TARIC, checked 2026). Poland then applies VAT at 23%, but a VAT-registered business recovers it, so it is a cash-flow item rather than a true cost. The numbers that actually decide your margin are freight, terminal handling and — more than anyone admits — finish and packing.
Here is how a buyer should lay it out. The figures below are illustrative, not a quotation; fill them with real numbers from your own forwarder before you sign anything.
| Line | Basis | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Goods | FOB Semarang | Confirm finish and packing are included |
| Ocean freight | 1×20’FCL to Gdańsk / Gdynia | Rates move; quote per sailing, not per year |
| Insurance | 0.3–0.6% of CIF value | Cheap peace of mind on breakable glass tops |
| Terminal & handling | Gdańsk / Gdynia, plus inland to Poznań | Ask for the all-in clearing quote |
| Duty | ~0% MFN (HS 9403.60) | The correct HS code protects this |
| VAT | 23% (Poland) | Recoverable if VAT-registered |
The practical takeaway: negotiate on FOB Semarang so you know exactly what is yours, and insist on the same Incoterm from every factory you approach — mixed Incoterms make quotations impossible to compare, and the “cheapest” number is usually the one with the least included.
Ready to price a container? Send us your item list and quantities, and we will confirm what fits in one load, the FOB Semarang price and a realistic lead time.
Send your item list for a quote →
Documents that keep a Polish container moving
Customs rarely stops goods for the reason people fear. It stops them for a missing line on a document. The usual set for teak root furniture entering Poland is a commercial invoice, a packing list, the bill of lading, a certificate of origin and proof of legal timber. Send your broker’s exact list to the supplier before production starts, not when the container is already at the gate.
- SVLK / V-Legal. Indonesia’s timber legality licence is recognised under the EU–Indonesia FLEGT VPA and is the strongest card a buyer can hold for EUDR due diligence. Ask for it early and keep it on file.
- EUDR due-diligence statement. Under Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2025/2650, large and medium operators must comply from 30 December 2026, and micro and small enterprises from 30 June 2027 (European Commission, Access2Markets). A supplier who can hand you geolocation and legality data for each batch removes weeks of headache.
- GPSR. The General Product Safety Regulation has applied since 13 December 2024 and requires an EU/EEA-based “responsible person” for consumer furniture. Your Polish importer is usually that person — make sure they know it.
- ISPM-15. Any solid-wood pallets or crates must be heat-treated and stamped. This one detail delays more containers than any tariff line.
- HS code discipline. Confirm the code per product type — a teak root dining table, a root coffee table with a glass top and a root planter can raise different questions in the same shipment.
Poland’s main doors are Gdańsk and Gdynia on the Baltic, both touching the deep-water terminal at Gdańsk. Some buyers route via Hamburg or Bremerhaven and truck the goods east, which can be cheaper or dearer purely on sailing schedules — that is your forwarder’s call, not the goods’. Your job is to have the documents that let the container clear on arrival.
There is a forward-looking reason to build a Poland relationship now rather than next year. The EU and Indonesia concluded negotiations on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on 23 September 2025; the European Commission tabled the agreement on 29 June 2026 and ratification is expected in 2027 (European Parliament legislative train, 2026). For HS 9403.60 the duty is already 0%, so CEPA matters most for adjacent lines and for paperwork — but it removes the last administrative excuse for treating an Indonesian supplier as a gamble.
Making the first order safe
A cautious first order is not a small order — it is a mixed one. Our minimum is a single 20-foot container with mixed items, which lets a Polish buyer test a teak root dining table alongside a root console, a run of root stools or benches and a root planter before committing to a full programme. Our terms are a 50% deposit with the balance before shipment, quoted FOB Semarang, with around 12 weeks lead time on a first order.
Three habits separate comfortable importers from stressed ones:
- Ask for photographs of the finished goods and of the loaded container before it sails. A container loaded to a plan is far easier to reconcile on arrival — and far easier for your broker to clear.
- Fix the finish in writing. Raw, oiled, matte and gloss behave differently under Polish daylight and in centrally heated hotel interiors that dry timber hard through winter.
- Agree the packing. Our standard is single-face carton, and glass tops are packed separately — but if you need triple-wall or crates for onward re-export, say so in the RFQ, because it changes both cost and how the container stacks.
Where these pieces come from
Jepara, on the north coast of Central Java, is Indonesia’s carving town, and it is where our workshop sits. The teak roots we use come from old plantation stumps and fallow land rather than felled forest — a piece that is a by-product of land already cleared for other use. Each root is cleaned, seasoned and inspected before a carver decides what it wants to become: a base for a teak root dining table, the body of a root coffee table with a glass top, a root stool, a root planter or a standing root sculpture.
Honestly, the hardest part is not the carving. It is the drying. When the rainy season arrives, green wood cannot move into the workshop on the schedule a European buyer has in mind, because forcing it through the kiln cracks the grain. We build the calendar around the weather instead of against it, and that is one reason we quote 12 weeks rather than promise four. Legal timber paperwork is the second discipline — every batch is documented for SVLK, and that discipline is exactly what makes a Polish importer’s EUDR file straightforward.
CV. Nusantara Sourcing Agent has manufactured and exported from Jepara since 2016, shipping to importers, hotel groups and interior contractors in Europe and North America. We load about four 40-foot containers a month and have shipped more than 300 containers since we started. The volume is not the point. The point is that a wholesaler in Poznań can reorder the same teak root console two seasons later and get the same thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What duty and VAT apply when importing teak root furniture into Poland?
Under the EU Common External Tariff the main finished wooden-furniture line, HS 9403.60, sits at around 0% MFN duty, and Poland applies VAT at 23%, which a VAT-registered business recovers. Freight, handling, insurance and quality control influence your margin far more than duty, so always confirm the exact HS code with your broker.
What changes for me under the EUDR in December 2026?
From 30 December 2026, Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 requires large and medium operators to file a due-diligence statement proving the timber is deforestation-free and legally harvested; micro and small enterprises follow from 30 June 2027. Teak is a covered commodity. Our SVLK / V-Legal licence, recognised under the EU–Indonesia FLEGT VPA, together with batch-level legality and origin data, feeds straight into your statement.
Can I mix stock for re-export with my own retail range in one container?
Yes, and many Polish wholesalers do exactly that. Our minimum is one 20-foot container with mixed items, so you can load a teak root dining table, several root coffee tables with glass tops, a run of root stools and a root console in a single load, then split it between your own showroom and onward buyers in Germany, Czechia or the Baltics.
Which Polish ports do you ship to, and what is the Incoterm?
We quote FOB Semarang and buyers clear through Gdańsk or Gdynia, occasionally via Hamburg or Bremerhaven with inland trucking. CIF can be quoted on request, but keeping FOB lets you compare factories on identical terms and control your own freight.
Talk to us about your project
Tell us which pieces you need, how many, and where in Poland they are going — your own showroom, a hotel refit, or an onward re-export. We will tell you what fits in a container, what it costs FOB Semarang, and what the timeline honestly looks like.
Send your item list for a quote →
Or write directly to export@teakrootfurniture.com · WhatsApp +62 812 283 3040 · Mr. August Praymunor (10:00–16:00 Jakarta time, GMT+7)
Packing, loading and shipping
Every order is packed with protective wrapping, stacked to a load plan and staged before it leaves the factory. We list each piece so that what arrives matches what was ordered, and we can supply a container load plan for your customs broker.
Where does the container actually leave from? Everything is loaded in Jepara, on the north coast of Central Java, roughly two hours by road from the port of Semarang. Cartons are staged, checked against the packing list, then driven down to the quay and lifted onto the vessel. Semarang is the port we quote from, which is why FOB Semarang is the term most buyers work on.
Our office and factory stand at the same address on every document we issue: Jl. RA Rukmini KM.02 Pekalongan RT.02/V, Tahunan, Jepara 59428, Central Java, Indonesia.
MOQ 1×20’FCL mixed · 4×40’FCL per month · 300+ containers shipped since 2016 · export@teakrootfurniture.com
Written by
Mr. August Praymunor — Overseas Marketing Director
CV. Nusantara Sourcing Agent · manufacturer and exporter of teak root furniture in Jepara, Central Java, Indonesia. We have shipped over 300 containers since 2016, loading 4×40’FCL per month for importers, hotel groups and interior contractors in Europe and North America. Every figure in this article comes from the sources noted in the text or from our own shipping records.
export@teakrootfurniture.com · WhatsApp +62 812 283 3040 · LinkedIn · Jl. RA Rukmini KM.02 Pekalongan RT.02/V, Tahunan, Jepara 59428, Central Java, Indonesia
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