According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), throughout 2022, Indonesia's textile industry exported only 1.5 million tons, a 17% decrease year-on-year (YoY).
This figure is lower than the export volume in 2020, when the initial pandemic hit, and represents the worst performance in the last eight years.
Despite the volume decrease, the value of national textile exports in 2022 only fell by approximately 6.5% (YoY) to USD 4.3 billion.
This result is still better than the early pandemic period, when export values plummeted to a low of USD 3.6 billion, as shown in the graph.
This data indicates that although export demand slowed in 2022, the prices of textile industry commodities generally increased in the international market.
Commodities included in this industry group include spun yarn, woven fabrics, man-made staple fibers, man-made filaments/yarns/strips, knitted fabrics, embroidered fabrics, textile fibers, silk, and other textile goods.
At the beginning of 2023, the Minister of Manpower (Menaker), Ida Fauziyah, allowed several industrial sectors, including the textile industry, to cut worker salaries by a maximum of 25% due to slowing global demand.
The details of this policy are stipulated in Article 8 of the Manpower Minister Regulation Number 5 of 2023, which reads:
(1) Certain labor-intensive export-oriented industries affected by global economic changes may adjust worker wages, with the provision that wages paid to workers are at least 75% of their usual wages.
(2) The adjustment as referred to in paragraph (1) is made based on an agreement between the employer and the workers.
However, labor-intensive industries permitted to cut worker salaries must meet the following criteria:
* A minimum of 200 workers;
* Labor costs account for at least 15% of production costs; and
* Production depends on orders from the United States and European countries, evidenced by order requests.