With exports still in the doldrums, textile manufacturers are turning to the domestic market with help from government campaigns aimed at bolstering sales of locally made goods.
And prospects are even brighter for those firms already focusing on the domestic market.
"The majority of textile firms export their products overseas. We are lucky because 70 percent of our textile products are for the domestic market," director of PT Ratutex Purwakarta, or Kurnia Ratu Kencana, Denny Hendradi said in a recent interview.
Ratutex is one of the top fully integrated textile processing firms in West Java, the province that supplies 40 percent of the country's total textile and garment products.
"The domestic market is helping us to survive, especially today when the local currency is strengthening," Denny said, adding that since January the company had produced its normal volume of textiles.
Lie Kim Liang of PT Indratex Batujajar Cimahi, West Java, said the domestic market had helped textile producers at a time of crisis, thanks to its huge size.
"I was previously pessimistic. Production slumped to 20 tons from 30 tons per day late last year," Lie Kim, who owns the company, said.
Lie Kim said that although his company faced market uncertainties, he had kept on buying raw materials at US$430 per ball (1 ball = 181.44 kilograms) of yarn in January and February to meet the expected needs for production of fabric.
"Surprisingly, I got lots of orders from consumers ever since," he said.
The Indonesian Textile Association (API) said that of all the business sectors, the textile industry was the most badly affected by the global economic downturn.
The textile industry contracted by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of the year from the previous quarter, far more than the 1.61 percent contraction suffered by the entire manufacturing sector, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).
The government has however put in place a number of measures to help sustain domestic demand to compensate for declining exports. One of them is by launching the so-called "I Love Indonesia" program to encourage Indonesians to love and appreciate locally made goods and services.
The Industry Ministry is also carrying out a program under which selected textile manufacturers can get a government subsidy when they secure bank loans to upgrade or change their production machinery.
Meanwhile, Lilik Kurnadi, director of Primatek, said more companies should use the government's subsidy facility to bolster their competitiveness. He said over 50 percent of textile firms in the country were using aging machines which consumed excessive energy, chemical inputs and water.
As a result, Lilik added, Indonesian products are more expensive than overseas products, in particular for illegally imported smuggled products, which also avoid taxes.
