RI textile firms hit by flood of imports

Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 11/18/2009 9:34 PM

The share of domestic textile producers in the national market is going to plunge to 50 percent by the year-end, down from 65 percent last year, as a wave of cheap imports to hits the domestic market, an association says.

Ade Sudrajat, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), said on Wednesday the dramatic drop in market share retained by RI firms was the result of a big jump in imported textile products flooding the market.

“That may cause domestic products to eventually control less than 50 percent of the national market share by the end of this year,” he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a national textile conference.

Ade said the domestic market is now estimated to be worth Rp 70 trillion (about US$7.42 billion) by the end of this year.

“[This is because] the Trade Ministry has given too many import licenses to those [who claim to be] importers/producers, without verifications in the field,” he said, hinting that many of these textile imports might have been entering the country illegally.