Deputy for Small and Medium Enterprises of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (KemenkopUKM) Hanung Harimba said the thrifting presence of imported clothing was detrimental to domestic textile SME producers. To note, thrifting is an activity in finding and buying used goods. Regarding this activity, Hanung said, imports of used clothing could cut the market share of domestic textile SMEs by up to 15 percent. “This thrifting of imported clothes will also harm textile SME producers. According to CIPS and ApsyFI, 80 percent of clothing manufacturers in Indonesia are dominated by small and micro industries, while imports of used clothing have cut their market share by 12-15 percent," said Hanung Harimba in a statement in Jakarta, Monday (13/3).

Apart from that, Hanung explained that thrifting of imported clothes had detrimental impacts, including causing serious environmental problems because many of the imported used clothes ended up in Final Disposal Sites (TPA).

Furthermore, thrifting of imported clothing is smuggled or illegal goods that do not pay duties and excise, causing state losses. According to him, the issue of thrifting is currently a serious issue, especially because currently the world economy is slowing down, so the import of used goods is an additional challenge for MSMEs in the country.

In this case, he emphasized that the ban on thrifting of imported clothing has actually been regulated in the Regulation of the Minister of Trade Number 51/M-DAG/PER/7/2015 concerning the Prohibition of Importing Used Clothing.

In addition, it has been regulated in the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 40 of 2022 concerning Amendments to the Minister of Trade Regulation Number 18 of 2021 concerning Export Prohibited Goods and Import Prohibited Goods.

"In Article 2 Paragraph (3) it is written that goods are prohibited from being imported, one of which is in the form of used bags, used sacks, and used clothes," said Hanung.

For your information, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that imports of used clothing in Indonesia reached 26.22 tons throughout 2022. In value terms, imports of used clothing reached USD 272,146 or the equivalent of IDR 4.21 billion assuming an exchange rate of IDR 15,468 per USD.

Meanwhile, the import volume in 2022 shot up 227.75 percent compared to the volume in 2021 which reached 8 tons. When viewed in terms of import value, the increase reached 518.5 percent compared to 2021 which reached USD 44,000. Seeing the trend, imports of used clothing in Indonesia have fluctuated in the last decade, with the highest import value in 2019 of USD 6.08 million and a volume of 417.73 tons.

By country, most of Indonesia's used clothing imports came from Japan with a volume of 12 tons with an import value of USD 4,478 or equivalent to IDR 378.6 million. The second number of used clothing importing countries is Australia, with an import volume of 10.02 tons of used clothing with a value of USD 225,941 or equivalent to Rp. 3.49 billion. Then third, imports of used clothes from Malaysia amounted to 1.65 tons with a value of USD 1,774 or around Rp. 27.44 million