Indonesia encourages use of natural fibres in textiles

15 Feb '14

2 min read

The Government of Indonesia is encouraging the use of locally-grown natural fibres like banana, pineapple, etc. by the domestic textile industry to decrease the country’s dependence on polyester and rayon imports, Euis Saedah, director general of Small and Medium Enterprises in the Ministry of Industry, has said.

Talking to reporters in Jakarta, Ms. Saedah said the quantity of raw materials imported by the Indonesian textile and apparel industry is quite large.

Last year, Indonesia imported textile raw materials worth US$ 5.6 billion, while the country’s textile exports stood at $10.9 billion, Ms. Saedah said.

She said Indonesia is a major consumer of raw materials for man-made fibres, such as polyester and rayon, and to overcome this dependency, the Government is now encouraging the use of natural fibres available in the country.

She added that some Indonesian agricultural commodities can be used to produce natural fibre for use as a raw material in the textile industry.

Indonesia has a supply of natural fibres such as silk, cotton and non-textile natural fibres. In addition, there are also bananas and pineapples that are encouraged to produce natural fibres, and this is being done by enhancing the existing technologies.

She informed that over the past decade, the Ministry of Industry has worked on developing natural resources that can be transformed to give look and feel of natural fibres like silk and cotton, and could be used as textile raw materials because Indonesia is rich in natural resources.

Additionally, the use of natural fibre textiles will gel with characteristics of Indonesian fashion, she added.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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