RI looks to Japan, U.S. markets for giftware exports
RI looks to Japan, U.S. markets for giftware exports
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has a lot of room to increase its
exports of wooden articles, ceramics and giftware to Japan and
the United States, where demand for such goods is increasing
steadily, trade officials said yesterday.
"Japan, with a population of about 125 million, is maintaining
its tradition of gift-exchanging, which in turn boosts imports of
gift items," the director of the Indonesian Trade Promotion
Center for Osaka, I Made Raka Metra, told a three-day export
forum here yesterday.
"There are so many seasonal, social and personal occasions
where the Japanese always exchange gifts," Raka told the
participants in the forum, which was opened on Tuesday.
He said the Japanese exchange gifts at new year, mid-year,
father's day, mother's day, old-aged day, valentine's day and
Christmas.
They also exchange gifts to mark personal events, like
birthdays, weddings, ritual ceremonies for children at temples,
births and deaths, he said.
He said that Japan's market for giftware amounted to 10
trillion yen (US$104 billion).
Imports of gift items increased by 14.7 percent to 370.7
billion yen in 1994, from 323.1 billion yen in 1993.
Japan's imports of giftware from Indonesia, its tenth largest
foreign supplier, increased by 10.9 percent to 5.5 billion yen in
1994, from 4.9 billion yen in 1993.
Raka said that Indonesia has an opportunity to increase
exports of 12 kinds of giftware to Japan: handbags, purses and
wallets; bags and cases; tableware; kitchenware; interior
statuettes; wooden articles; baskets; artificial plants;
imitation jewelry; non-electrical toys; craft accessories; and
textile interiors.
Meanwhile, the director of the Indonesian Trade Promotion
Center in Los Angeles, Lili Soerojo Danusastro, said that
Indonesia could also raise its exports of giftware and wooden and
ceramic articles to the United States.
"U.S. annual spending on the purchase of ceramic tableware and
kitchenware in 1989-1993 averaged more than US$1 billion," she
said, adding that 90 percent of that spending was on imported
items.
The director of the Indonesian Trade Promotion Center for New
York, Bambang Miarsa, told the meeting that Indonesian exports of
wooden frames rose from $86.8 million in 1989 to $163.6 million
in 1994, indicating an average increase of 17.6 percent per
annum.
He said that U.S. imports of wooden handicrafts had increased
by 50 percent, from $300.3 million in 1989 to $467 million on
1994, while Indonesia's exports of such goods to the United
States had increased from $10.6 million to $27.3 million.
Bambang is concerned that Indonesian businesses have failed to
take part in the International Gift Fair in New York, the world's
largest gift fair held twice annually.
Suprapti Wahyuni, a handicraft entrepreneur who owns gift
workshops in Bali, Yogyakarta and West Java, told The Jakarta
Post that overseas demand for gift items is increasing but that
her company finds it difficult to meet the demand due to limited
production capacity.(kod)