The Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo) said that Indonesia has the opportunity to expand the footwear export market to the Asian market, in addition to traditional destination countries such as the European Union, the United States, and member countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). "We have an opportunity, there are still Asian markets and markets with advanced economies that we haven't explored for our local brands," said Aprisindo Executive Director Firman Bakrie to Bisnis, Sunday (23/1/2022). According to Firman, local brands that are losing business in the domestic market due to low purchasing power can be encouraged to gain export market share, for example to Singapore and Australia. The two countries can be targeted for footwear export opportunities because of the suitability of the consumer segment and the products offered.
However, what needs to be emphasized is the government's facilitation and support. "We need support from the government because it turns out that in Singapore it is necessary to rent space which is more expensive than selling in Indonesia. For example, there are tax-free facilities or long-term loans," he explained. Firman continued the challenge of expanding into non-traditional markets, namely different segments in each country. For example, to expand to Africa, actors are unlikely to send the same goods sold to the European Union because of different levels of purchasing power. Likewise, the domestic market is not suitable for exporting goods. "Unless we switch markets, we develop new segments. For example to Africa, we must prepare products that match the purchasing power there," he said. Delivery to non-traditional markets has been running so far, although, in terms of value and volume, it is still relatively small. Meanwhile, during January-November 2021, the export performance of national footwear recorded a growth of 27.3 percent to US$ 5.52 billion, which was dominated by sports shoes at 69.52 percent.