The prospect of the textile industry in the country is expected to be quite bright this year in line with the improvement in the post-Covid-19 pandemic. According to the Executive Director of CORE Indonesia, Mohammad Faisal, this estimate is in line with this year's economic growth, which is predicted to improve with the assumption that there are no more restrictions on people's mobility. "With no restrictions on mobility, the need for clothing products will increase so that this will become a financial opportunity for the textile industry," Faisal said to Bisnis, Monday (6/6/2022).
Thus, he continued, the government needs to protect the domestic market from imported products. The application of the safeguard itself is considered to have an important role in maintaining the opportunities of the local textile industry in the domestic market. This year, the government is implementing safeguards for domestic raw materials, auxiliary materials and textile and apparel products to strengthen supply chain harmonization.
These efforts need to be optimized considering that the volume of Indonesian textile imports is still increasing. Citing data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) processed by the Ministry of Industry, the volume of imported textiles in March 2022 reached 132.15 tons. This figure is up 7.45% compared to the same period the previous year. Textile import volume in March 2022 was also higher than February 2022, with an increase of 11.18%.
