Entering the end of August 2023, it seems that the national textile industry is still experiencing a number of challenges, friends. This was stated directly by the Chairman of the Indonesian Textile Association (API), Jemmy Kartiwa Sastraatmadja in an interview with one of the online media in Indonesia. According to Jemmy, the "sluggishness" of the national textile industry was caused by several factors and also the influence of global conditions that were still not good. “Global conditions are still not good. Both from Europe and the USA (United States)," he explained on Tuesday (22/8).

The first factor causing the textile industry in Indonesia to remain abnormal is due to the decision by the United States central bank or the Federal Reserve (The Fed) to raise interest rates to 5.5%.

It is even possible that the interest rate will be increased by 1% in the near future. The second factor, Indonesia's textile exports are still weak. Yes, currently Indonesia's textile exports are somewhat unable to compete with other countries. So that resulted in many importers to the country.

For example, goods from China flood the domestic market at relatively affordable prices.

Seeing this, Jemmy, representing the members of the API, asked the government to be more serious about tightening the rules for the entry of imported goods. He predicts that the 'sluggish' condition of the textile industry in Indonesia will improve in Q-3 of 2024.

On the other hand, in the records of the Ministry of Industry, the volume of apparel exports in April 2023 increased on a monthly basis, from 21.9 tons to 32.5 million tons in May 2023. Exports of apparel also grew from US$480.2 million in April 2023 to US$700.7 million.

In addition, the performance of the textile industry, especially apparel, was also driven by increasing domestic market demand, especially for school clothes as the Education school year changed in July 2023.

Several retailers in the country are currently using up the remaining product stock from the Idul Fitri season and heading for the school holidays. The Director of Industry, Textiles, Leather and Footwear of the Ministry of Industry, Adie Rochmanto Pandiangan, said that apparel imports in May 2023 reached 133,000 tons, up from the previous month's import realization of 106,000 tons.