Furniture, wood & rattan
Indonesian teak furniture
Indonesia ships teak furniture as finished goods, most of it built in Central Java. Much of Java's teak grows in managed plantation forest, and every wood product leaving the country carries a V-Legal document under the national timber legality system. For the European Union, that document no longer answers the whole question.
How it leaves the country.
- Finished furniture
- Indoor and outdoor ranges, shipped assembled or knock-down. Which one depends on the article and on whether the freight saving covers the assembly cost at your end.
- Solid or veneer
- Teak is contracted either as solid timber or as veneer over another substrate. The word teak on a quotation does not settle which of the two you are buying.
- Components
- Some buyers take machined parts and finish them at home. That is a different customs treatment and a different conversation, and it is worth settling before anyone quotes.
How it is graded.
Teak is graded by the trade and not by a national standard. The letters mean whatever the contract says they mean, so the definition belongs in the contract itself.
- Grade letters
- A, B and C describe heartwood content, knots and colour uniformity. No published standard defines them, and two mills will draw the lines in different places.
- What to specify
- Heartwood only or heartwood with sapwood, knot allowance, moisture content on arrival, finish, and hardware.
- Legality
- V-Legal document under SVLK, required for every wood product leaving Indonesia, for every destination1
How it is packed.
- Shipped as
- Assembled for large case goods. Knock-down where the volume saved pays for the labour at the other end.
- Wood packaging
- Crates, pallets and dunnage are treated and marked under ISPM 15. The rule applies to the packaging around the goods and says nothing about the furniture inside it2
Where it grows.
Jepara
Central Java
Indonesia's furniture and woodcarving centre. The density of workshops here is what makes short runs and hand-carved work possible at all.
Surakarta
Central Java
The second Central Javanese furniture cluster, and a common answer when Jepara's carving capacity is not what an order needs.
Gianyar
Bali
Décor, carved pieces and mixed-material furniture, aimed at hospitality and retail interiors more than at volume ranges.
Who buys this.
Choosing between this and something else.
Origins with a protected name.
Names the trade contracts on, most of them on the Indonesian register of geographical indications.
Documentation, where applicable.
- V-Legal document
- Issued under SVLK, Indonesia's timber legality assurance system. Required for wood products to every export destination, and not only to Europe.1
- EUDR due diligence statement
- For the EU only. Wood is a listed commodity and furniture is a derived product, so both are in scope. Large operators from 30 December 2026, small and medium from 30 June 2027.3
- ISPM 15 treatment mark
- On the wood packaging that travels with the goods: crates, pallets and dunnage.2
- Certificate of origin
- Which form applies depends on the destination and on the preference scheme in force between it and Indonesia.
Questions buyers ask.
Does an SVLK certificate satisfy EUDR?
No. SVLK answers whether the timber was legally harvested and traded. EUDR asks that and a second question, whether the land was deforested, and it wants plot coordinates to settle it. A V-Legal document is not a due diligence statement and cannot be turned into one.
Assembled or knock-down?
It comes down to freight arithmetic. Knock-down fits far more units into a container but moves the labour to your side. Assembled costs volume and arrives ready to sell. For heavy case goods the assembled route often still wins.
What does grade A teak mean?
On its own, nothing enforceable. It is a trade convention with no published standard behind it, so it means whatever your contract records: heartwood content, knot allowance, colour uniformity. Write those out and the letter becomes useful shorthand.
What does your service cost?
Five per cent of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory. A factory audit starts at $250 depending on location. We work with orders from $10,000 per shipment.
Tell us what you need.
Give us the specification and the destination port. We come back with producer options and an indicative price. Our fee is 5 % of the order value, paid by you and never by the factory.
Sources
- 1SVLK, Indonesia's timber legality assurance system. FLEGT licence information service. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 2ISPM 15, regulation of wood packaging material in international trade. International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), FAO. Checked 3 August 2026.
- 3Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). European Commission. Checked 3 August 2026.