Handicraft exports expected to increase

JAKARTA (JP): The National Agency for Export Development forecasts Indonesia's handicraft exports will surge 15 percent to US$575 million this year from $500 million in 2000.

Gusmardi Bustami, the head of the agency, said the forecast was based on an expected increase in demand for the country's products from Japan.

"Main buyers such as Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong now prefer Asian-style handicrafts," he said "The shift will benefit us."

"Indonesia's handicrafts have an ethnic style and are attractive to the Japanese, but the Japanese seldom find these handicrafts in Japanese stores," Noriku Okura, the senior trade adviser at the Japan External Trade Organization, said.

She said Japan's middle to high-end handicraft market share was going to increase rapidly from between 20 percent and 25 percent last year, but she declined to give any exact numbers.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistic, Indonesia exported about $150.3 million worth of handicrafts to the United States during the first 10 months of 2000, or about 35 percent of the country's total handicraft exports.

Singapore accounted for 13 percent, or $53.55 million, of the country's total handicraft exports between January and October last year. Japan accounted for 9.7 percent, or $40 million, during this period, England 8.7 percent, or $35.7 million, Germany 5 percent, or $20 million, and Hong Kong 4.1 percent or $17.14 million.

Gusmardi added that furniture exports were expected to increase by 20 percent to $1.8 billion from $1.5 billion last year.(05)