General Chairperson of the Indonesian Filament Yarn and Fiber Producers Association (APSyFI), Redma Gita Wirawasta, said that this year's Eid is projected to support the recovery of the textile industry.
This is indicated by the stretching of textile entrepreneurs who invest in machinery.
"In the domestic market there has been an easing of activity, purchasing power has also started to recover, the government has also issued policies such as garment and fabric safeguards. This has made our industry move from upstream to downstream back to normal, there are even some fabric manufacturing companies starting to invest in new machines ," said Redma in a discussion on the IDX Channel Market Review, Friday (1/4/2022).
He continued, he revealed that ahead of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, consumer demand experienced a significant increase, which forced the company to increase production capacity.
"Even I got reports from IKM friends, many of them are short of manpower due to the large number of orders ahead of Lebaran," he said.
Meanwhile, Redma explained, at the moment of this Muslim holiday, the increase in utility production capacity in the upstream sector in the rayon increased by almost 95 percent, whereas usually it is only around 80 percent.
"Then polyester is now up to 85 percent, usually below 70 percent. This means that the same increase also occurs on the downstream side at this year's Eid moment," he added.
However, there is something he is worried about, namely the illegal entry of imported goods. According to him, it will reduce the performance of local products in the market.
"We heard that imported goods have started to come in. Now that's definitely illegal. Because the government has issued safeguards, the safeguards are very high import duties. If it's legal, it's impossible for imported clothes to enter. Except for the high-end ones, which cost Rp. 500 thousand per cloth. pcs. But if it's 50-100 thousand rupiah, it's impossible to enter," he said.
Therefore, he asked the government to immediately intervene to control it. Not only on direct sales, but also on online platforms.
"If illegal goods enter, and are not handled, it will be detrimental to us. Especially on the downstream side, because all we have to do is sell it to retailers, so the impact is that other retailers have to compete with imported products because the goods are cheaper," he said.