RI'S TEXTILE EXPORTS TO EU IN FIRST QUARTER DOWN

Jakarta, Aug 5 (ANTARA) - Indonesia's exports of textiles and garments to the European Union dropped by 17.4 percent and 6.54 percent respectively in the first three months of this year.

"Demand for textiles (fiber, yarn and fabric) as well as garments in the EU market is still affected by the global crisis in 2008. The drop in the demand has tightened the competition to enter the EU market among textile producers ," Indotextiles executive director Redma Gita Wirawasta said here on Tuesday.

Redma said in the first quarter of last year the country's textile exports to the EU reached 54,000 tons but in the same period this year they only reached 44,600 tons, down by 17.4 percent.

The country's garment exports to the EU meanwhile reached 23,700 tons in the first quarter last year and in the same period this year they totaled only 22,200 tons, down by 6.54 percent.

Redma said Indonesia's strong competitors right now were China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Turkey and North African countries.

"The national industry of textiles and textile products must be continously boosted by providing supportive business facilities such as appropriate infrastructure, stable price of raw materials, productive workforce and regulations that could encourage growth," he said.

He admitted national producers of textiles and textile products
must also conduct internal improvement by increasing efficiency and productivity so that the products they offered could be more competitive. He said the marketing team also played an important role with regard to market penetration.

"They must not focus only on one market," he said. He said companies that could see opportunities and always conducted innovations on their products would survive the competition both domestically or globally," he said.

Redma said since the first quarter this year demand for textiles and textile products in the EU dropped 12.34 percent from 2.98 million tons last year to 2.61 million tons.

"Textile products contribute more to import reduction compared to garments. Textile imports in the EU in the first quarter reached 1.36 million tons, down 21.38 percent compared to 1.74 million tons in the same period last year," he said.

The EU's garment imports rose a bit by 0.23 percent to 1.25 million tons in the first quarter this year compared to 1.24 million tons in the same period last year.