Efforts to increase the contribution of the domestic market to the absorption of textile products are considered difficult by economists to be realized in the near future. Stakeholders are advised to focus on saving the textile and textile product industry which faces various challenges.

“Increasing domestic consumption for textiles is a bit difficult, yes. Because as is known textile products are sold in retail. And retail conditions are not supportive at the moment,” said Andry Satrio, Head of the Center for Industry, Trade and Investment Indef.

However, he does not deny that the domestic market has great opportunities considering that the production structure of the textile industry and textile products is not dominated by exports like Bangladesh. For this reason, he suggested a more consistent effort to boost consumption in the domestic market.

“There is indeed a head to head competition with imported products, especially in terms of price. Especially with the presence of e-commerce. Therefore, it is necessary to affirm for local products, for example, in the local market, fashion products are displayed on the front page," he said.

He also said that this industry needed greater support from policy makers, such as the provision of electricity discounts for production and relaxation of production capacity during PPKM so that the industry could meet the demands of buyers, both from within the country and abroad.

"From BPS data, the textile industry is still contracting on an annual basis, when compared to before the pandemic, it is deeper. This is a danger alarm. It is necessary to ensure that this industry can survive. Moreover, other exporting countries recover faster," he said.

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said the challenge of textile products from abroad was one of the obstacles to seize the domestic market. Meanwhile, in terms of exports, the market is limited to countries that have shown a recovery trend.

“Control of textile and apparel imports is still weak domestically, especially since e-commerce growth has accelerated rapidly. Safeguards in the form of restrictions on imported textile products should be implemented,” said Bhima.

The government is noted to have taken a number of security measures against imports of textiles and textile products. Among them are the imposition of antidumping duties (BMAD) for spin drawn yarn from China and BMAD on polyester staple fiber from India, China, and Taiwan since 2019.

There is also a safeguard or security action import duty (BMTP) on yarn since 2020, BMTP on fabrics from Malaysia and Vietnam since 2020, BMTP on curtains since May 2020, and carpets.