Autralian firm to plug Indonesia's handicraft exports

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Export Supporting Board has signed an agreement with Australian joint venture PT Out of Asia to boost the country's handicraft exports.

The board's executive director, Faridz Soewardi, said on Tuesday that under the agreement, his agency would finance the production of handicraft by small firms.

Yogyakarta-based PT Out of Asia would purchase the handicrafts, help producers to obtain orders from foreign buyers and design the products to meet foreign buyers' tastes.

"We and PT Out of Asia will jointly help handicraft producers to improve the quality of their products and their financial management," he said.

Faridz said his agency would provide working capital loans of Rp 500 million (US$62,500) to at least 500 handicraftmakers.

PT Out of Asia president Warwick Purser said his company was currently working with 150 handicraft producing groups in Yogyakarta, West, Central and East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.

"Indonesia has great potential to become the world's biggest exporter of handicraft products. But first of all, the quality and the design should be improved to meet buyers' tastes," he said.

He said handicrafts made from bamboo and terracotta were increasingly popular on the international market.

"But Indonesia is facing tight competition from China and other Asian countries."

He said his company sold between 300,000 to 400,000 units of handicraft products per month. The biggest markets were European countries, the United States, Japan and Australia. (gis)