Opportunities vs Challenges: Indonesia's Furniture and Crafts Industry at a Crossroads

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The state of Indonesia’s furniture and crafts industry is currently at a crossroads. On one hand, export opportunities remain wide open and serve as a mainstay for growth. On the other hand, the influx of cheap imported products and various domestic obstacles force industry players to struggle hard to survive. “To be honest, our industry, especially SMEs, remains vulnerable. It is not yet stable or strong, facing complicated regulations and non-simple challenges,” said Sobur to Kompas.com in Jakarta on Friday (10/4/2026). One of the main issues facing the national furniture industry is the complexity of regulations, which are deemed not fully supportive of export growth. Sobur explained that business players must meet various non-trivial requirements, both domestically and from export destination countries. According to him, other countries like China, Vietnam, and Malaysia tend to apply simpler regulations, making their products more competitive in the global market. Not only that, other issues such as the potential delay in tax refunds are also feared to disrupt business cash flow, especially for exporters. “Tax refunds are very important to support exports. If delayed, it will certainly burden industry players,” he emphasised. According to Sobur, policies issued are often not synchronised and instead confuse business players. “Between ministries such as trade, industry, and forestry, they are not fully synchronised. This forces industry players to face overlapping regulations,” he said. He gave an example that in the implementation of wood certification, downstream industry players are still required to fulfil various documents even though the raw materials used are already certified from upstream.