Majalaya textile factories back in business<\/p>\n
By Yuli Tri Suwarni<\/p>\n
MAJALAYA, West Java (JP): The textile home industry was once
\nflourishing in this town. Then came a nightmare in the form of
\nthe economic crisis.<\/p>\n
It was a disaster. In order to meet their families' daily
\nneeds, many in the business sold their machines at very low
\nprices.<\/p>\n
Today, however, the textile home industry in Majalaya, one of
\nthe major textile producing centers in the country, is back in
\nbusiness.<\/p>\n
\"So do not expect to see piles of unused weaving machines or
\npeople sitting around unemployed in their houses,\" local resident
\nDede Suwenda said.<\/p>\n
\"Labor is scarce here,\" Dede added.<\/p>\n
The area, known as the center of the textile home industries,
\nproduces a variety of items from sheets to shoe laces.<\/p>\n
A textile factory owner, Isa, 60, said that while many people
\nwere having problems earning enough money to buy food, factory
\nowners here were having problems meeting orders.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of small and medium-sized textile factories in the
\narea, located about 20 kilometers south of the province's capital
\nof Bandung, actually benefited from the economic crisis.<\/p>\n
Before the crisis hit the country in 1997, the local home
\nindustry could not compete with big companies which mass produced
\nand sold their products at a much lower price.<\/p>\n
It was also not easy competing with the big players as the
\nhome industry used old weaving machines which were mostly
\nmanufactured between 1950 and 1960.<\/p>\n
At Majalaya the women folk used to weave cloth using simple
\ntools, while the men sold them walking from one village to
\nanother.<\/p>\n
\"Before the monetary (crisis), I sold my products, made with
\nsix fabric rope machines, in a pedicab,\" said local textile
\nfactory owner Ateng Taufiq, 55.<\/p>\n
\"Now I own three Kijang (minivans),\" he added.<\/p>\n
A dyeing factory owner, Satya Natapura, said a couple of years
\nago, he used to be worried about the fate of his 300 employees.<\/p>\n
Back then, his factory was almost idle since most of the local
\ntextile businesses which were his clients had closed down.<\/p>\n
Today, his factory receives four times as many orders.<\/p>\n
The success of the textile home industry in Majalaya is
\nlargely due to foreign traders who come directly to the area,
\nwhich is known as the place where the country's textile tycoon
\nThe Nin King once learnt how to make a sheet of cloth, to buy the
\nproducts.<\/p>\n
Due to the rupiah's devaluation, it has become much cheaper to
\nbuy fabric locally even after factory owners raised the price of
\ntheir products.<\/p>\n
Ateng who produces fabric ropes said after the economic
\ncrisis, he had to raise the price of the ropes from Rp 3,000 per
\nkilogram to Rp 15,000.
\nIt is still much cheaper to buy them locally as the international
\nmarket sells them at US$2 per kg.<\/p>\n
The price of white cloth may be four times higher today, but
\nthey are still four times cheaper than those manufactured
\noverseas.<\/p>\n
The foreigners, mostly from Africa and the Middle East,
\nusually buy large quantities of textile when they visit Majalaya.<\/p>\n
\"Every time they come here, they bring along 40-feet
\ncontainers,\" Satya, who is also an executive of the Association
\nof Majalaya Textile Industry Owners, said.<\/p>\n
\"They then fill the containers with all kinds of fabrics and
\nclothing as if they were shopping in a convenient store,\" Satya
\nadded.<\/p>\n
The foreigners had come to hear of the area from textile
\ntraders at the Tanah Abang market, Central Jakarta, where they
\ninitially bought textiles from.<\/p>\n
The market, which is the largest textile trading center in the
\ncapital, is one of the main markets for factories in Majalaya to
\nsell their products to, besides the Pasar Baru market in Bandung,
\nWest Java.<\/p>\n
Many foreign traders now choose to buy textiles and clothing
\ndirectly from their producers.<\/p>\n
The traditional textile factory owners admit they had also
\nfelt the impact of the economic crisis when it first struck in
\n1997 but they had fought to keep their businesses afloat.<\/p>\n
According to factory owner Isa, since the price of polyester
\nthread, which is used to make cloth sheets, has soared, many
\nfactory owners go to Cipagalo, 15 km north of Majalaya, to buy T-
\nshirt collars.<\/p>\n
\"We buy a lot of them, pull out the thread, and use them as a
\nsubstitute for polyester thread in making cloth sheets,\" Isa
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Isa also said the factory owners now realize that they can
\nincrease their production by using more machines.<\/p>\n
Ateng said that since he was not able to afford factory-made
\nmachines, he had gone to a blacksmith instead.<\/p>\n
\"The price of Korean-made machines doubled to $2,000 per unit
\nin 1998. Blacksmiths can make them for me for only Rp 1.5 million
\neach,\" Ateng said.<\/p>\n
Many textile factory owners made the mistake of closing down
\ntheir businesses shortly after the economic crisis began.<\/p>\n
Thirty-year-old Dede Suwega, who inherited from his parents
\nthe textile business run by his family for four generations,
\nregrets his decision to sell his textile manufacturing equipment.<\/p>\n
\"Then, the industry was going through a hard time since there
\nwere not enough buyers and raw material was very expensive,\" Dede
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
\"According to the newspapers, economic observers said the
\ncrisis would go on for a long time, and I believed them because
\neven in mid-1998, the condition had not changed.\"<\/p>\n
Dede said he then took all 50 of his weaving machines to a
\njunkyard and sold them for Rp 400,000 each.<\/p>\n
\"But God has ruled differently. The textile products in our
\narea began to sell very well. My friends who stayed in the
\nbusiness have become rich,\" Dede said.<\/p>\n
Like Ateng who collects the remnants of cloth from his
\nneighbors and turns it into fabric ropes, there are also many
\nlocal residents who make pillow covers, sarong, and shoe laces
\nfrom them.<\/p>\n
Even paper cylinders to roll thread on are recycled to make
\nbig paper blocks to roll cloth sheets on.<\/p>\n
However, the factory owners complained about the lack of the
\ngovernment support for small and medium-sized businesses in the
\narea.<\/p>\n
\"We are not demanding credit facilities, we just need
\nguidance,\" Satya said.<\/p>\n
\"There are many people in the business here who do not know
\nanything about management, technical matters or market
\nexpansion.\"<\/p>\n
\"It's hard if we have to only rely on the market in Java as it
\nis already very crowded,\" Satya said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/majalaya-textile-factories-back-in-business-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}