JAKARTA - Activists in the textile and textile products (TPT) industry have accused import quota mafias of being the root cause of the decline in the national textile sector over the past eight years. The presence of import mafias has also been a trigger for the ongoing wave of layoffs.
The Filament Fiber and Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI) recorded that approximately 250,000 workers were laid off due to the closure of 60 factories between 2023 and 2024.
Meanwhile, the National Confederation of Trade Unions (KSPN) recently released data indicating that workforce reductions by August 2025 will reach approximately 400,000 people, predominantly in the textile and footwear sectors.
The Alumni Corps of the Islamic Students Association (KAHMI) of the Textile Rayon Department believes that this is inextricably linked to the presence of import quota mafias. The import quotas issued by the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) continue to increase annually.
Agus Riyanto, Executive Director of KAHMI Rayon Tekstil, assessed that many companies have closed and laid off workers because they were unable to compete with imported goods.
"This means that the import quotas issued by the Ministry of Industry have eaten into the share of local products in the domestic market," Agus said in a written statement received by VOI on Thursday, August 21.
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), yarn and fabric imports in 2016 were only 230,000 tons and 724,000 tons, respectively. However, by 2024, imports of these two products had reached 462,000 tons and 939,000 tons, respectively.
The textile import quota is issued by the Ministry of Industry through Technical Considerations (Pertek) based on the Import Trade Regulations issued by the Ministry of Trade (Kemendag).
In this regard, Agus explained that there have been numerous complaints from local industries that the import quotas they apply for are generally only granted less than a third of their annual production capacity.
"If the industry's needs are only met by imports at 30 percent, but import data is increasing, then who is being given the large import quota?" asked Agus.
Meanwhile, APSyFI Secretary General Farhan Aqil Syauqi highlighted the textile and textile industry sector's contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) which continues to decline annually, from 1.16 percent in 2016 to only 0.99 percent in 2024.
Furthermore, the textile and textile industry's trade balance has also declined from US$3.6 billion in 2016 to only US$2.4 billion in 2024.
"In terms of volume, our textile and textile trade has been minus 57,000 tons since 2017, and the deficit continues to widen because import growth is higher than export growth," he said.
Regarding the 4.35 percent year-on-year (yoy) growth data published by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in the second quarter of 2025, Aqil explained that the BPS data is correct according to the statistical method used.
"But BPS doesn't count illegal imports, which should be deducted from GDP calculations," he explained.
He also acknowledged that new investments also boost growth. However, on the other hand, stalled investments are not taken into account.
"Yes, indeed, in GDP calculations, only additional investment is counted; discontinued investment is not counted as a deduction," Aqil said.
Regarding the alleged textile import quota mafia, Aqil declined to comment, even though his members are deeply affected by the flood of imported goods.
"Further investigation is needed, but given the Ministry of Industry's position of rejecting the proposed imposition of anti-dumping duties (BMAD) on filament yarn, it seems the import quota mafia does exist," he concluded.
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