Sweden's IKEA has received its first order for temporary flat-pack refugee shelters and expects to double or triple production in the coming three years, the company says.

After developing the shelters together with the IKEA Foundation's social enterprise Better Shelter, the United Nations Refugee Agency signed an agreement for 30,000 units, of which 10,000 will be delivered in the middle of this year.

The shelter, which comes in flat-pack cardboard boxes, can be assembled on site without additional tools and has a solar panel and a lamp.

Better Shelter's head of business development Johan Karlsson said the first units would go to refugee camps in Iraq and possibly Ethiopia.

"We have around 53.5 million refugees and internal refugees in the world so this of course is just a drop in the ocean," he said, adding he expected production capacity to at least double or triple in coming years.

One housing unit is big enough for five people and costs $1483.

The privately-held Swedish company, known for its flat-pack self-assembly furniture, reached a net profit of 3.3 billion euros ($4.6 billion) in the 12 months through to August 2014.

Reuters