LPEI Encourages Weaving Sarongs From Gresik To Enter The International Market

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI)/Indonesia Eximbank continues to provide guidance to villages that have the potential to become exporter villages through the Foreign Exchange Village Program. One of them is Wedani Village, Cerme District, Gresik Regency, East Java, which is one of the Gresik Weaving Foreign Exchange Villages fostered through the LPEI program.

LPEI itself as the Special Mission Vehicle (SMV) of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia in synergy with the Gresik Customs and Excise Supervision and Service Office, the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, the Ministry of Finance and the Office of Cooperatives, Micro Enterprises and Perndang (Diskoperindag) Gresik Regency to develop the potential of Wedani Village .

There are 1,500 female weavers producing ATBM (non-machine loom) weaving sarongs who are members of the Wedani Giri Nata Cooperative (WGN) weaver group. Wedani Village ATBM woven sarong is a superior commodity from Gresik Weaving Foreign Exchange Village which reflects local wisdom by having elements of local culture.

Through the Foreign Exchange Village Program, LPEI will collaborate with a number of central and regional institutions to provide assistance in institutional aspects, production to market access to members and management of the Wedani Giri Nata Cooperative.

Currently, the production capacity of woven sarongs from Wedani Village reaches 146,400 sarongs per month. With the Foreign Exchange Village Program, it is targeted that in the first semester of 2022, the WGN Cooperative will be able to carry out initial exports and the products produced will comply with international standards.

"The Foreign Exchange Village Program owned by LPEI aims to build and increase the potential of an area that has superior export-oriented products, directed at increasing public access to achieve better socio-economic cultural conditions. And also generating foreign exchange from business activities carried out on an ongoing basis," said LPEI Executive Director James Rompas, in his statement quoted on Wednesday, November 3.

James Rompas added, with the inauguration of the Gresik Weaving Foreign Exchange Village, Wedani Village became the 24th village to participate in the LPEI Foreign Exchange Village Program. So that the total beneficiaries of this program have reached 2,774 farmers/weavers and are targeted to continue to grow in the following years.

The Foreign Exchange Village program started in 2019 with the Cocoa Foreign Exchange Village in Jembrana, Bali being the first Foreign Exchange Village to have a superior commodity in the form of fermented cocoa beans, then the Handicraft Foreign Exchange Village in Bantul, Yogyakarta with environmentally friendly handicraft products that have been able to export sustainably to Europe.

Until November 2021, LPEI has inaugurated three foreign exchange villages, namely Ijen Banyuwangi Agrotourism Foreign Exchange Village, Subang Coffee, Gresik Weaving, so that through the Foreign Exchange Village Program Indonesian local products can be global and have a positive impact on economic, social and environmental improvements for local communities. In the future, LPEI will continue to synergize in developing villages through the Foreign Exchange Village Program.

The inauguration was also attended by the Regent of Gresik, H. Fandi Akhmad Yani who also expressed his appreciation for the collaboration between LPEI and the Gresik Regency Government, local cooperatives, inter-ministerial institutions to advance Wedani Village.