The Textile Industry gets a breath of fresh air with preparations for the New School Year. This is believed to encourage and awaken the textile industry which is currently under pressure. Director of Industry, Textiles, Leather and Footwear of the Ministry of Trade Adie Rochmanto Pandiangan said domestic market demand, especially for apparel, had made the textile industry's performance improve. In preparation for the New School Year period. In addition, retailers are finishing up the remaining clothing stocks from Idul Fitri production at the end of April.

"We also suspect that the government's P3DN (Increased Use of Domestic Products) policy to supply public school clothing and ASN clothing is ongoing. To anticipate this supply, the next supply, manufacturers have started to increase production activities," he said, Wednesday (6/28/2023).

Nevertheless, Adie admitted that the textile industry was still experiencing a contraction due to high imports which suppressed the absorption of sales of domestic products. Although it has increased from the previous month, the performance of the textile industry is still not at its peak.

He hopes that as the new school year enters, the performance of the textile industry will improve.

"Our textile imports have increased compared to April. It increased quite a lot from 133 thousand tons in May from 106 thousand tons. This volume of textile imports has roughly caused textile stocks in the market to not be absorbed and will still be large until June 2023, causing sales of textiles and garments to decline," he explained.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Industry Spokesman Febri Hendri Antoni Arif said a number of industries in the textile sub-sector were still in difficult conditions and were reported directly by industry players.

Febri strongly suspects that one of the causes is the still high volume of imported used clothes, which he says enter through the Bonded Logistics Center (PLB). Therefore, he asked the ministries/agencies and related parties to oversee the process of entry and exit of goods at the PLB.

"We have asked other ministries that are in charge of activities at PLB and marketplaces to further tighten supervision of imported goods entering Indonesia," he said.