Batik exports in 2011 declined because the commodity`s main markets were in countries going through a financial crisis, namely the United States and Europe as well as Japan, the minister said.
Because of the crisis, consumers in those countries decided to buy fewer batik products from Indonesia , Mari said.
Indonesian batik exports in 2008 reached a total value of 93.09 million US dollars. In 2009, the figure dropped to 76.01 million US dollars, and in 2010 it fell further to 69.24 million US dollars.
Mari said her ministry would make efforts to diversify the markets of Indonesian export goods and promote Indonesian art heritage articles as commodities in the global market.
Batik was considered as a national brand product of Indonesia in the world, and its trade value could not drop easily, she said.
"Batik can also be used as a tool in diplomacy ," she said.
The top 10 destination countries of Indonesian batik exports were the US, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Poland, the UK and France.
Of the ten export destination countries, the US was the biggest buyer with 35.6 percent of the overall export value, followed by Belgium with 15.2 percent and Japan with 10.9 percent.
The destination countries whose Indonesian batik imports saw a decline compared to the previous year were the US from 25.1 million US dollars to 24.6 million dollars, Japan from 11.5 US dollars to 7.5 million US dollars and Sweden from 4.0 million US dollars to 3.0 million US dollars.
The sharpest decline happened in the UK`s imports of Indonesian batik , namely from 9.1 million US dollars in 2009 to only 1.1 million US dollars in 2010. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
