The Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) dismissed issues related to the condition of the footwear sector, which experienced a decline in utilization of up to 50%. "Please clarify, because our latest data is utilization at 89%. This means that actually for the footwear industry there has been an increase in the export market again," said the Director of the Textile, Leather and Footwear Industry of the Ministry of Industry, Adie Rochmanto Pandiangan in Jakarta, yesterday . However, Adie acknowledged that there were disturbances overseas that were burdening the national footwear industry.
"In particular, textiles and footwear are very disrupted, because 65% is for the export market. So when the geopolitical conditions of the foreign economy are disrupted, the inflation rate that we hope to improve in the European Union turns out to be 8.1%, in the United States 5%, this really bothers us," he explained. .
However, on the other hand, he said that the domestic market-oriented footwear (shoes) sector was not disturbed due to demand ahead of the new school year.
"Demand has increased ahead of the new school year, but overall it can't really help much," said Adie.
Therefore, the Ministry of Industry continues to coordinate and discuss with various Ministries and institutions, most recently with the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag) Bank Indonesia (BI) discussing the labor-intensive sector where consumption for up to 18 months cannot be expected to improve.
"In anticipation, we and the Ministry of Trade have organized a business matching for the African market. For traditional markets, the city cannot expect much," said Adie.
Previously, Executive Director of the Indonesian Footwear Association (Aprisindo) Firman Bakri said, due to the decrease in orders, factory utilization, especially export orientation, is now an average of only 50%. Some are only 30-40%. In fact, under normal conditions it can be 100%.
As a result, said Firman, there was a massive layoff (PHK).
In the period January - May 2023, there were an additional 6,000 layoffs, so that since last year 31,700 workers have been laid off.
He revealed that the addition of 6,000 people affected by layoffs in the January-May 2023 period was not due to the non-functioning of Permenaker No 5/2023 concerning Adjustment of Working Time and Wages in Certain Export-Oriented Labor-Intensive Industrial Companies Affected by Changes in the Global Economy.
Firman said, until now there has been no indicator showing that the global economy will move in a positive direction. Moreover, the political side in the United States (US) is still heating up. This condition will certainly affect US economic conditions, which will further reduce export demand.
"Our largest export market share is in the US, which is around 33%. Then, the European Union 25%, and China 17%. Until now, there have been no positive indicators that can really affect export demand," he explained, some time ago.
Firman admits that it is not easy to find alternative markets for exports. This is because Indonesian footwear products that are exported are premium products, whose market segment is different from other countries.
“It is still rather difficult to find new export markets. The only way to do efficiency, "concluded Firman.
