JAKARTA: Indonesian Garment and Accessories Supplier Association, or APGAI, estimates illegal garment imports reach Rp 100 trillion ($7.8 billion) a year, on top of the Rp 10.9 trillion in second-hand imports — which are also forbidden — undermining the local garment industry.
Poppy Dharsono, the APGAI chairwoman, said here the other day that illegal imports posed as the main threat for the country’s garment industry, particularly to the small and medium-sized business that cannot compete with cheaper illegal imports.
Illegal imports, Poppy said, account for about a third of annual garments and accessories sales in Indonesia.
Tutum Rahanta, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Retail Merchant Association, called on the government to tighten supervision on the ban of used clothes imports, which has been in place since 1982.
