On the decline of furniture industry

After reading your article by Gin Kurniawan From 'Ali Baba' to 'kawin kontrak' published on Oct. 14, 2001 regarding the economic situation in Jepara, Central Java in the furniture industry, I wish to contribute my personal experience to let readers understand the real reasons for the decline of the industry.

I am an Italian and owner of a foreign company working in the furniture business in Semarang, Central Java, but I have around 30 suppliers of raw furniture from Jepara. After seven years of experience I can say that Jepara's furniture is no longer as saleable as it was in the past due to the poor construction quality.

My company buys between Rp 350 million to Rp 400 million a month worth of furniture from Jepara, but all the furniture is made under strict quality control, firm instructions and quality standards which allows us to sell our products through the best shops in the world and with customer satisfaction guaranteed.

If furniture makers wish to get out of the crisis they need to enhance the quality of the construction of the furniture. To this end, most of the Jepara manufacturers need to have an injection of know-how from the outside, which can come only from foreigners involved in this business.

Some of these foreigners are just adventurers, but some are very good, knowing the standard of finishing the western world wants. They also know the foreign market well enough to build up an export flow. So, all the funny reasons given in the paper such as kawin kontrak (wedding contract), are of course part of the game, but not the main reason for the decline in Jepara's industry.

The decline will end when manufacturers understand international standards, start to use properly kiln-dried wood and make furniture with a floating construction.

BRUNO CAMERIN

Commissioner

PT Kharisma Klasik Indonesia

Semarang